Apple Vest

I am genuinely getting close to the last of the apple print...but I'm not there yet.

I thought it would be fun to make a vest from the apple print, and I'm still happy to make New Look 6514 from something besides patchwork (although I definitely will make it from patchwork sometime again, especially now that I have the die cutter.)  As much as I like making patchwork, it does, y'know, add significant time to a project; without the additional labor of patchwork, this is a quick project.

 

 It is at this point that I acknowledge that there are probably significant clowncore aspects to this print, and to using it for so many things.  I can live with that.

Making a vest provided the opportunity to use some more of the buttons that the friend had sent, right when I was starting work on the second try at the apple cardigan.  Like the green buttons I used in that project, these surprise vintage buttons coordinated with this print amazingly well.

And, yes, I edge stitched around a lot of this.  I even swapped the top thread on the back, so it matched the blue lining fabric.  Why blue?  Well, beyond being limited by what was in the stash, I do really like pink (or red) mixed with blue and green.  Again, not skirting the clowncore connotations.

I approached the lining in my usual fashion, by sewing it completely together, then sewing it to the shell all the way around the front/neck/front and around the arm openings and at the bottom of the back, then (after under stitching and pressing things), pinning one side, shell to back and lining to lining, pulling them through the other side of the unsewn back, and stitching those pinned parts together in a loop.  Those get pulled back out, then as much of the other side is pinned together as possible and stitched in a harder-to-maneuver loop, with the last few inches closed up by hand, which is what's in the next picture.  I will hand sew, sometimes.

Instead of adding back darts and a back tie as the pattern wants, I left the back undarted and sewed a 6" channel at the center, then inserted 5" of elastic in it.  (I did this after sewing the first side, but before the harder-to-maneuver side.)

This vest is not at all perfect, but it is cheerful and done.