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.

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.

The Quick & The Vest

I have the fabric and pattern picked out for this year's Halloween Patchwork Project, but I don't quite have the drive to start working on it yet, so I decided I'd do something fast and easy yesterday.

I was initially going to use the purple sequin fabric to make a cardigan, but I didn't like any of the rib knits I had in combination with it.  By the time I admitted the cardigan wasn't going to happen, I was committed to using some of the odd areas of the purple sequin, and settled on a vest.  I got a lovely reddish purple lining fabric last time I visited the craft thrift store, but I was already starting to feel ambivalent about this project and didn't want to use part of a larger piece.  I poked around my lining fabric stash and found a small amount of thrifted dark wine...acetate?  It did have a bit of that distinct acetate smell (along with a lingering hint of cigarette.)  I had thought of using it for a vest years ago that never got made, so it seemed right to use it for this vest that was going to get made, whether I wanted it or not.

Vest in Olive

When I was in college, Mom heard about a weird fabric store in a town we never otherwise visited, so of course she decided we should go.  If I remember correctly, the ground floor (big windows, lovely natural light) was proper bolts of fabric, and odds and ends of trim on spools, bulk zippers, random other craft items, and the second floor (no windows, all fluorescent light) held tables and tables of random lengths of fabric.  I don't remember if it was sold by the pound, but it seems likely.

Surprisingly, I was restrained, and got only a few pieces of fabric.  Not surprisingly, I still have two of them--or, at least, I had two, until I used one for this vest

I would have adored a vest made from this fabric when I got it 30 years ago, but any vest I might have tried making back then would not have been this one, so I'm glad I waited.

Patchwork Vest: This Time the Theme is Wool

In 2022, I made a patchwork vest from Halloween print cottons, and in 2023 I made the same pattern from a variety of not-exactly-Valentines-Day cottons.  When I was clearing out the bulky wool scraps and remnants from the small yardage drawer--much of which went into the skirt I made last week--I sorted some into a pile of black and white blends.  I knew there wasn't enough to make another skirt, of any length, but I figured there would be enough for the front of a vest.  I didn't want to use New Look 6514 again, though, because I didn't think the princess seams would be appropriate. Simplicity 9630 is a much simpler design, especially if I leave out the front darts.

Started this before I knew

When I was working on the doll dress from the last project, I noticed that I seemed to be having allergies triggered by all the fiber particles created by ripping the fabric.  When I made doll clothes more often, I ripped fabric all the time but never had itchy ears or sneezing because of it; I figured, meh, I just hadn't exposed myself to it for a while, so I simply wasn't used to it anymore.

Nope! Covid!

(very probably from someone where Husband works--someone who knew they had been exposed to it but decided it was nothing to concern themselves about and so went to work anyway.  The way it manifested in Husband was more classic covid, and I really did think I just had allergies, but tested anyway since he had it.  Not allergies! Covid! This is the first time we've had covid.  I'm just waiting for my tonsils to stop hurting when I swallow reflexively while I'm trying to sleep.)

So, back when I thought I just had allergies (the trees behind the house are setting buds already! Allergies are happening! But not for me!), I decided to do another Teen Me Would Have Loved This Simplicity 9630 'tapestry' vest.  This time, the project would involve finally figuring out if there was enough of the longer end of the irregularly cut jacquard 'tapestry' fabric I'd gotten from the craft thrift store in summer of 2022 to cut the full vest fronts. Folding and cutting normally: no.  Offsetting the placement of the pattern piece for each side and tossing out all hope of pattern matching: yes.

And even in the full size medium.

Idyllic Vest

 The last visit to the craft thrift store netted a few upholstery samples from the free bins, that I grabbed entirely with the idea of making vests very much like I wore in the early 1990s.  I may not necessarily wear them now, but Simplicity 9630 from 1990 is an easy pattern, and it's fun to make vests with it that would have thrilled young me.

I had already made one vest from one of the free upholstery samples, and just finished a second

And, yes, Teen Me would have loved it.

Another Vest for Teen Me

 Five days ago, I went to the craft thrift store again, and ended up grabbing these jacquard 'tapestry' samples out of the free bins

I was hoping there would be enough of each of them to use as the front of a Very Early 1990s style vest.  And there is!

 

Ace Vest

 This is a very simple project that took me ages to cut and assemble and I wasn't even sure if I liked it until I tried it on when it was finished and then suddenly it was fantastic.

Patch Vest: Red Edition

Last October, I made a vest from a whole bunch of 2" squares of Halloween print fabric sewn together.  I really like how it turned out, and, while I do enjoy the idea of Halloween all year, I'm ambivalent about orange outside the Halloween Season Proper.

So, I had a vague plan to make another 2" square patchwork vest, and earlier this year I was struck by some red and pink fabrics in my small yardage stash.  I gathered similar and coordinated fabrics, then acknowledged, and proceeded to ignore, the distinct Valentine's Day feeling of everything together.

Last weekend I started cutting the squares.  It helped a lot to reference the finished Halloween vest, so I could count how many patches were needed.  I still managed to cut too many, which is always better than not enough, of course.  I used the Halloween vest as a guide for what patches should go where to make panels big enough for the pattern pieces, and I also learned from the Halloween vest to pay attention to the front opening overlap on the other side, to avoid the same print ending up near itself (it's the second row from the edge on the lower side that the opening edge on the upper side lands next to.)

I started sewing squares together in the evening, then finished the next day

 

 Then I procrastinated and dawdled for most of the rest of the week and finally finished today.

Roll the Die: Patch Vest

 

 Rolled a 4: Patch Vest! (at this point I want to mention, with great amusement, that I didn't have to re-roll any of these.)

Patch here means patchwork, just like the previous project, and vest is view B of New Look 6514.

The vest pattern is completely straightforward and reminds me that I do want to make more vests

just

without cutting a lot of 2" squares from scrap fabric and taking over a day to assemble them into panels just a bit bigger than the pattern pieces first.

     Once that was done, though, zip zoom and the vest was finished

Is a Nineties Vest, Is Not a Nineties Fit

 

Vest

Dress

Unlike the last two outfit photos, I actually wore this for most of the day  (it did eventually get too warm for layers)

Throwback Vest

 In the previous vest post, I concluded by mentioning that I might make a 1990s-style vest someday.

And here we are

Another combo

 

Shirt

Vest

Skirt

Could Be Any Number of Vest Puns or Rhymes

 There was a decent amount of fabric left over from the skirt I made a few days ago, and I decided I'd make it into a vest.

As someone who was a teen in the early 90s, I have a definite history with vests, although those were mostly unstructured, generously cut excuses to collect a variety of 'tapestry' jacquard fabrics.  I wanted this one to be a bit more structured, if only because the fabric in question wouldn't make as notable a feature as the tapestry.

(It will surprise no-one to learn that I do currently have an assortment of tapestry jacquard fabrics in the fabric stash.)

I must have gotten rid of the early 90s Style pattern with a variety of vest options, including double breasted lapel collared view (and I tried looking for it again, but using the word 'style' in searches does not actually narrow anything down...and excluding all the other major pattern names just confuses the search algorithm.)  But I do still have McCall's 5186, which does have a single breasted lapel option in view A

And it's definitely a vest.

Quick Vest Revisited

 So.  That vest I posted about a week ago.  That floppy floppy vest.

I used the finished opening edge to cut the appropriate shapes from some heavy stabilizer (which has been used in...several of my recent projects, huh)

Then I picked open the lining side seams

maneuvered the stabilizer to the floppy appropriate areas

pinned everything in place

sewed on line of trim

sewed on another line of trim

sewed on another line of trim

re-sewed the lining side seams (including finishing with hand stitched matching thread instead of the "bleh I just want this project done" folded edge machine stitching in black thread I had done before)

and then I took pictures

Quick vest, quick write-up

 Basically

New Look 6514 from 2005

 

lied about not needing interfacing for view D 

The whole time, I was thinking "...shouldn't this have interfacing?  I feel like this should have interfacing.  But the pattern doesn't call for interfacing?  The other views, yes, but this view?  No.  I feel like this should ave interfacing.  But.  I'm going to trust the pattern."

I should not have trusted the pattern.

Or, rather, I should have trusted it more and included that tie and maybe even the potentially reinforcing trim.

But I didn't.

Finished the vest started last month...wait...no...I need puns...so...um...The Vest is Yet to Come...?

Late last year, I did a cloth-for-sewing-doll-clothes trade with AsterKurayami, who sent an interesting assortment of cloth scraps from her Aunt's interior decorating projects.  Most of what she sent were doll-appropriate cottons, but she did send a few light upholstery weight fabrics as well, and some of them really caught my interest.  My favorite pieces weren't entirely small, and I thought for a while of using them to make zippered pouches, and was almost ready to do that, when...hmm...how about a patchwork vest?