Tag: Vest

Vest for Warmth

Adding an extra layer for warmth.

I am not a warm-blooded person. I’m more a lizard in disguise and since that blue coat that I’ve been dreaming about hasn’t materialized yet, I’ve been wearing my dinosaur coat most winter. Sadly, the weather has been quite miserable and my office is also a cold, cold place. To catch two birds with stone, I decided to make a vest to wear over my clothes and under my coat.

I settled on the fur vest from Model 28 in Simplicity Naaimode 31, also known as view D of Simplicity 8218. I went through my stash and decided that I wanted neutral colours, black and grey maybe? So I pulled a number of options and started putting the pattern pieces on. In the end, I chose a thick grey fabric that had some bits cut out already and a thick black fabric that also had some parts cut out before. I think I inherited these when a friend tried to de-stash.

For the outside, I chose the black and I cut the two fronts, the back and the collar. The grey was the inside and since the collar was a folded one, only two fronts and a back were needed. Since everything is enclosed, I thought that it would even be possible to wear the grey on the outside. To achieve this, I added a little elastic loop to one edge. Then two buttons were positioned, one on the inside and one on the outside to keep the little vest closed. I think the buttons are very cute.

I have worn this thing a lot over the course of the past few months, it’s truly been a warmth saver and makes me so much more comfortable. It’s also slightly more elegant than the oversized bodywarmer that I’d been wearing before. All in all, good project!

Argyle Vest

It caught my eye, I had to try, it’s now done, wearing will be fun.

Have you ever had the feeling that you had to make something after seeing an image of it? Well, I’ve had that feeling recently and this time it was due to a combination of slipped stitches and eyelets. I spotted the free pattern Argyle Sweater Vest by Kaitlin Barthold on Ravelry and it was love at first sight. Am I secretly eighty? Maybe. Do I care? No, that Argyle vest had to come live in my closet too.

So I first looked for some yarn. The pattern indicates that it’s originally made with a cotton bamboo DK yarn but that a good substitute would be a wool bamboo DK weight. I happened to have some of that in my undyed yarn hoard. I wanted to make a dark green vest, almost like the picture and I swear the yarn looked like that in the dye pot. However, once it dried, it was more.. grey-green-sea foamy than dark winter forest green. I decided that that was fine too. So I cast on.

I used this as a travel project, it went with me to Amsterdam, to the zoo and stayed in my house. I’d printed the instructions for the argyle pattern and meticulously referenced them throughout my travels (and while in my lazy chair). The pattern isn’t difficult, but it does require some counting and being able to read what you did the round before. Once I cast off the armholes, it became more like a guessing game of where to start the written pattern (I probably should’ve used the chart), but I think it all worked out well, argyle pattern wise.

There have been some modifications to create a more optimal fit. After 2.5 (instead of 3) repeats of the pattern, I started the armholes. I’m short, I didn’t want a dress. Then I also reduced the length of the armholes by 8 rows on front and back. The amount of ribbing rows in the neckline is different and I completely chucked the instructions for the armhole ribbing out of the window. It looked like you could drive a truck through those armholes before I redid them. So the second time around, I also took those in like the center front with a triple decrease.

Unfortunately, the weather turned bad before I really got a chance to wear it. As I am a lizard and it’s turned cold recently, I can’t just wear a button down without freezing. I’m currently debating whether I can make a button down / sweater to wear under this thing, but I haven’t figured it out yet. So for now, it lives on my dress form in the window, mesmerizing me from a distance. I do love argyle patterns so.

Sewing for someone else

I got asked if I wanted to help someone. It was going to be an easy alteration to a vest that was too big. I said yes, and he came over for me to pin. I never hit him (yay!). It took 2 centimeters in each side seam, and 1 on the shoulders, but it does look a lot better now. It even looks quite nice on the inside:

Shoulders Side seam

If I do say so myself. It fits a lot better than it did before. Not so very much too big. I don’t know if I’ll do it again, because it’s nicer to make things for me (I follow in the steps of the Selfish Seamstress), unless they are real presents. So we’ll see in the future what happens.

Productivity, 1.

Wow, you wouldn’t believe everything I did today, yesterday and the day before. I’ve made a shirt, 2 vests and a large, large skirt. Now, while I suddenly have done things and therefore could produce more content (and keep myself entertained), I’m going to divide the productivity into 3 parts. To start with the first thing I finished, and the most boring one.

We are again organising a larp event, this time it takes place during the beginning of April. We are introducing some new characters and species of which I helped conceive a few. One of these new species wears a yellow vest (and some other attributes, but I’m not going to spoil that fun, you might learn after April). I found myself in charge of making said yellow vests since I’m pretty much the only one who knows how their sewing machine works.

I couldn’t find any yellow fabric in the town where the event is held. So I went to a local second-hand shop to find some, and I did. It wasn’t too difficult. It was only when I returned home with the loot that I found I had a lot of yellow myself in the stash. However, the “new” stuff was a much better fit for a larp costume. There was not too much of it, which was a shame and had me change my “pattern plan”.

The second-hand shoppe also had patterns for sale, I got four (total price: 1 Euro). 3 dresses and a man’s shirt. The plan was to trace the front and back of the shirt and make the vests from that pattern. I did that, but they didn’t fit on the fabric. I had a night of thinking about it and the next day I decided I would keep it simple. So I cut the fabric in two. The bottom edges were both frayed, but it looked nice so I kept that as the bottom edge. The centre fronts are the selvages (less hemming for me, yay!). I cut out armholes, and some sloped shoulders. Sewed the shoulder seams. Created bias tape out of a bit of fabric from the yellow stuff I still had in the stash. (Thanks Scientific Seamstress for the printable bias tape maker and Jona for the bias tape out of small yardage tutorial!!)

Tape maker OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I laid my bias tape along the edges on the right side, sewed it down, folded it to the wrong side and sewed it down again. The first time round it looked absolutely hideous.  But I decided I didn’t care, although I made the second one much nicer. Well this morning I changed my mind and redid the first one, it now looks like the pictures below, outside and inside. They are really shapeless and quite ugly, but they are supposed to ‘fit’ a wide range of people since we don’t know who will wear them.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Well this was the first (or first two) project that was finished this weekend. Up next: shirt (of which you might spot a little hint up above).