Replacing My Favorite Vest

Think about that one piece of clothing that is your absolute favorite.  What would you do if it were thread bare from wearing it and you could not find another even after combing the internet for days?

 I have a vest that I love.  It is silky, lightly quilted, made of several colors and patterns, fits perfectly, looked good with denim or slacks.  Sounds perfect doesn’t it?  Well, I’ve worn it to shreds and want another. 

I decided to make one.   First I bought a sack of silk sari strips and thought I would sew them together and then quilt them.  That sack sat and still sits in my closet.  I place the 1” to 3” strips on the table, looked at them and thought “Not in this lifetime”.   Thankfully I went to a fabric store in San Diego and found silky fabric that I love.  It is colorful and looks like blocks of different fabrics sewn together.  I bought it. 


My friend, Luana, went with me to Joann’s to buy light weight iron-on pellon and light weight interfacing.  She loaned me her quilting foot and offered a few tips.  I am quilting, on my small 30+ year old Elna sewing machine, a large piece of fabric that will make the vest….assuming I get the quilting part done.  There is a layer of silky fabric with the iron-on light weight pellon, a layer of very soft interfacing and then a layer of the silky fabric and it all slips and puckers at its will.  I can only quilt at night after a glass of wine!  Otherwise my eyes cross.  The first night I took out the two lines of stitching twice and decided I should wait til the next night and try again!

 

I’ve finally got the hang of it. I used Luana’s suggestion of masking tape for a guide for straight stitching.  After figuring out part of the problem was the bias direction of my stitching, I pinned more and sewed one direction for one line and changed direction for the second.   I think I may finish by the end of the week and another bottle of wine.

 
This is one of those projects that I decided I just had to do and NEVER have to do again!





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Location: Prescott, AZ, USA

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 24, 2013 at 4:03 PM

    Wow, I can see why this was such a project. Better you than me. But it does look like it will be beautiful once it's finished. I wanna see!

    ReplyDelete

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