This has been mostly done for months, and I've finally finished it! Hopefully I will finish a reasonable amount of other things this summer.
I've doodled a few variations of this waistcoat in my sketchbook.
I think I must have started this late last year, since it was traced from the top of
Nax's robe pattern. I really like the built up collar on that robe, and wanted something with the same collar for me to wear. I don't have any pictures of the pattern, but it's basically the top part of the robe minus the sleeves, and with a bit added to some of the seams because he's a little bit smaller than me.
I don't appear to have taken any photos of it early in construction, but it's just sewn and lined normally. I slipstitched the bottom edge of the lining because I wanted it to line up nicely, and I bound the armholes with bias strips of red cotton.
I used red & gold cotton for the facing, bemberg for the lining, and red & black dupioni for the rest. The bemberg and dupioni were both left over from
my line.
For the trim I wanted to use ribbon, but I couldn't find a suitable one in my stash, so I cut a piece of the selvedge off my black dupioni yardage and used that. In hindsight, I probably should have done something different, because it was very lumpy and is fraying a bit on one side.
I folded it in a zig-zag way and then folded it in half to make triangles, which is an awfully vague description, so I hope it shows up alright in the photo.
I stitched along the edge of them by hand to make sure they stayed folded, and hand sewed them to the inside edge of the collar.
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| My nails matching the the facing in this picture was actually a coincidence. |
I spent ages trying to decide what to do for the front closures. The robe closes with hooks and eyes, but that seemed a little plain for this waistcoat. After a lot of sketching I decided upon button loops with 2 rows of diamond things.
The diamonds are interfaced bits of black dupioni with the edges very carefully turned under, and stitched down along the edges by machine.
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| Before sewing the loose ends on and adding the buttons. |
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| Buttons attached! |
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| The lining and facings. |
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| Done! |
Annoyingly, the collar which I liked so much is mostly hidden by my hair when I wear it.
I'm not completely happy with the fit. I suspect it's from interfacing too much and not cutting the shoulder piece on the bias. And possibly from not allowing enough space in the collar for a cravat.
The tiny buttons are surprisingly difficult to do up! Though I doubt they would be for someone with short fingernails.
I prefer the way it looks unbuttoned anyways.
Hopefully the next incarnation of this pattern will be better.
