Sunday, September 28, 2008

The vest comes together

I love it when projects take on a life of their own. Yesterday this vest was a skirt; today it may not be finished yet, but it is definitely a vest, and it has made its wants very clear.

I had been thinking about using leather piping for the edges; it said yes to that. It said no, however, to leather ties in the back, reminding me that I had a couple of these cute black leather buckles that I picked up at Pacific Trims last year for a BWOF jacket that never got made. And one of those looks adorable on the back. At this point I'm debating putting one on the front as a closure; it's not necessary because I narrowed the vest so that it wouldn't close because I didn't want to hide the vintage buttons.

And I stopped back in the thrift store yesterday afternoon because the only lining I had on hand was black acetate and that just seemed to bleh. The thrift store served up a poly satin blouse in a wonderful oyster/light gray color, much more interesting. It's awaiting the scissors.

As I mentioned, this vest started out as based on BWOF's 2/2008 vest, but it's looking less and less like the original, and really only started from that point because I was feeling too lazy to draft a vest pattern from scratch. If the fabric had had a less definite design, I might have simply taken a princess-seamed jacket and cut that down, but I didn't want to disturb the roses any more than necessary. I think it worked well - the only thing I didn't like about the original skirt was how perfectly even the flowers were.

Back to the workroom. I'd like to get this finished today, if it lets me.

6 comments:

Elaray said...

love the fabric -- love the vest!

Kitty Couture said...

This is looking great, Karen! Nice pairing of fabrics.

Alana said...

Wow. This is looking really cool. I love it.

Meg said...

I love that you repurpose old garments. Very green of you!

Linda L said...

I like this fabric as a vest. Looks great with the new blouse and buttons.

Kat said...

Karen, this looks GREAT! I love the way the it's piped, and that belt buckle looks so snazzy.