Citrus-esque Vest

Continuing the patchwork adventures with the die cutter and the scrap bins, this time with the goal of making a vest front.

I've made two versions of New Look 6514 using woven cotton patches made from 2" squares that I cut by hand, choosing to cut the squares at 2" because I have a ruler that width.  I later made Simplicity 9630 from heavier fabric patches, cut at a larger size.  Now that I have the die cutter, I wanted to try...smaller.

I chose the 35mm square die, with the idea that the finished squares would be around 1".  Roughly.

I had spent time (happily) poking through the scrap bins and sorting out groups of coordinating fabrics.  This one was built around some Very 1970s green and orange prints, contrasted with black and white.  I originally assumed I would use it for doll clothes, but this project required more fabric.  A lot more.

I pulled some from other scrap assortments, the small yardage stash, and a little bit from the large yardage, too.  I don't generally have a lot of orange or yellow, so that need, plus a variety of black and white, meant I called in a few Halloween prints.  There are no pumpkins, so the Halloween touches may be subtle.  It's fine either way.

I chose Simplicity 9630 so I could omit the front darts again, figuring the small size of the patches could end up with some lost in the folds of the darts.  That's also why I didn't do New Look 6514 again, because a lot of patch area would be lost in the princess seams.

 

I also decided it would be a good approach to construct parts of the vest with the same 3/16" seams used to join the patches together.  To that end, I formed the center front rows of patches to be right at the seam line, and only later realized that I probably should have given myself more leeway in terms of the amount of size variation that builds up with that many seams.  That's a circuitous way to say the pieced panels didn't end up quite the same size or shape.

 

I took a lesson from knitting and crochet and pinned the panels to the ironing board, aligning all of the points and edges, and spritzed and steamed them thoroughly, hoping they'd end up the same size before being cut into the pattern shape.

 

I did alternate which direction I pressed the seam allowances from row to row, and let that at least somewhat align the strips of patches when I sewed them together, instead of pinning the seams.  That approach has worked well enough for the die cut patchwork doll clothes I've made so far, but those weren't as...extensive...as this project.  A lot of points don't meet, but no-one is going to get close enough to notice.

Because the seams to the lining aren't the full 5/8"--they vary from 3/16" to a half inch--I decided that edge stitching all around was absolutely vital to the structural integrity of this item.

I did shorten this vest, by about 2", in the shoulder area.  I'm not sure if that was a good idea, and doing it up there certainly didn't reduce the number of patches needed like it would have if I'd shortened it lower.  I can't decide if it now has an unbalanced silhouette, or just a not-1990s silhouette.

 

Once I got the fronts assembled, everything else went together with no problem.

 

I did consider mismatched buttons, one in each of the main vest colors, but went with these faux horn buttons in black and white, instead of the usual faux horn brown and white/ivory.  It helped that I had only four of them, so could use them all on this project.

Can you see the piece of fabric that I missed was too close to itself, when the vest would be buttoned, so I chose one of them to paint black, and you can just make out the original print through the thin paint?  It's fine.

 

This pattern wants the back ties to be sewn into the back darts.  I didn't want to make back darts.  I also didn't want to do an elastic channel like I have for a few recent vests, but I did want to add something for shaping.  I cut as much length of fabric as possible from what was left of the satin, made it into straps, and sewed them into the side seams.  That ended up floppy (which I expected), so I stitched them at about 7" from each side seam, through all layers.

Then that was tied into a bow.  (This pattern doesn't want a bow.  This pattern wants D rings.)

I had fun cutting the squares, and fun sewing them together, but the rest of it was very boring, at least compared to the activity of the patches.  I do like the look of the smaller patch size, but it was more  proof of concept for this project, and 35mm is probably not a die size I'll use for a person-size garment again. Smaller projects, though?  Highly likely.