OK, so, with the pockets all put
together, the next step was to assemble the collar. I’m sorry I don’t have more
pictures of the construction, but I ended up handing my phone off to the
toddler so he could watch videos, play games, and (most importantly) not be
interfering with the work. But anyway, each collar consists of four pieces – an
upper and lower section, and a mirror of each for the underside - that are each
backed by interfacing. I sewed the upper and lower pieces together, then the
top and bottoms (inside out) along the outside edges. Then flipped them
right-side out, and basted each down to its corresponding front panel. Voila!
That done, it was time to move on to
the lining.
You remember how I put darts in the
front panels? Well, I had to do the same with the corresponding lining panels
so they’d fit together properly. Again, these were hand stitched and took a
couple hours to do. Fortunately, I also had Halloween Wars to watch for
entertainment.
I also had to make the little belt
that goes on the back of the vest to adjust fit – you know those things, right?
Once that was done, things started
moving pretty quickly. I sewed back panels (both outside and lining) together, added
the belt pieces to the back panels, then sewed the front panels of each to
their respective backs at the shoulders. This got me two large, three-lobed
pieces that will become the outside and the lining respectively.
I pinned these two pieces together
inside-out, then sewed them to each other. In doing so, I left the side-seams
unsewn, in part because I needed open holes to pull the fabric through when I
turned the vest right-side out. And this was the result:
Finally, it was time to sew the
sides together to actually complete the construction of the vest. This was kind
of tricky, and the instructions in the pattern weren’t very clear. But to be
fair, I’m not sure that I could have explained it any better, and it was good
enough for me to eventually figure it out.
Long story short, vest construction
complete, and… IT DIDN’T FIT! Gosh darn it all to heck!
Here’s the thing. The pattern
package says it’s for all sizes between S and XXL. Now, it turns out that in
reality the package only contained patterns for S through L, with the XL and
XXL patterns being sold separately – a fact we didn’t realize until we got them
home. And for the longest time, I’ve worn size XL shirts. But I’ve lost some
weight over the last year and started fitting into size L, so I figured if I
took the size L patterns and cut them a touch large, I’d be fine. Nope.
And not by a small amount, either.
It was off by a couple inches. So I don’t know what was up with sizing on this
pattern (or the clothes I ordinarily wear), but something ain’t right.
On the plus side… I picked the
double-breasted version of the pattern. Which means that the front is designed
to overlap much further than it would have been if it had been single-breasted.
So even though the vest came out small, it’s still large enough for me to
button it as a single-breasted vest. So I can make it wearable, even if it won’t
look exactly like I intended. Phew!
So hopefully, later on I’ll be able
to add some additional panels to make the vest the right size. But for now
(since I want to be able to wear this costume for Halloween this year), I’m
going to finish it off as-is.
Cost of
supplies: $82
Time: 24hrs
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