A Vest and some Recycling

I just finished Burdastyle's new Franzi vest, and I think I need to make more of these. It was a really fast project, took only about 3/4 yard of fabric, and is a good excuse to use buttons and scraps that otherwise would just gather dust in a corner of my workroom.

Actually body fabric wasn't scrap - it was a dollar remnant from last Friday's trip to Jomar with Elizabeth and Kisha - but the lining and the gray stretch velvet for the lapels have been in the scrap bin for a while. The velvet was leftover from the pajamas I made for PR Weekend 2006, if that gives you an idea. The buttons are antique and have been in the jar for probably 15 years.

I love the construction of the vest. For the longest time I didn't get how things like this were made - sewing it all together, lining and vest, inside out and leaving only the shoulder seams open just didn't translate in my head. I guess finally learning how to bag a jacket lining turned on a few lightbulbs in my personal darkness.

Normally in BWOF and Burdastyle, I make a 38. For some reason when cutting this out I decided to cut a 40 and then taper it in if need be. No need - this seems to run a bit small. It's exactly the right length, though, just touching the small of my back and then ending in points in the front. Though that would be easy enough to adjust if I wanted to change the shape in the future.

Princess seams are wonderful, we're all agreed on that, but for this vest it made refining the fit a breeze. The whole thing, start to finish, including buttonholes (adjusted slightly lower because my machine looked at 3 layers of fabric, one being velvet, and said, "Nothing doing") took only about 3 or so hours.

Saving, printing and taping the free pattern together and then cutting it out probably took nearly as much time.

This is so going to be my favorite Christmas gift this year.