I have spent many many hours making garments on a sewing machine, and I didn’t plan on it, but I ended up making this garment entirely by hand. I have a huge obsession with hand stitching and have been making lots of samples and eventually came up with an idea to use all the ‘parts’ I had started. My collection of fabrics and leftover ‘gems’is extensive so I don’t have to buy fabric for new projects. I started without a plan for a design,and just used a collection of fabric pieces from previous projects and years of collecting. I love the combination of neutrals and pops of black.

I knew I wanted to make a vest so I started with a random piece of Cotton, and just started layering pieces until I was happy with how they looked. This was my first piece.

I had been saving a particular piece that I wanted to use and I decided to use it on the back. It was the original inspiration for the color story. The print was in a group of random fabrics that I found at a Quilt Show years ago.

I started 3 pieces, one for each front and a larger piece for the back. I don’t design too much until I decide what I’m going to make. If I go to far, I can’t cut through the stitching and I don’t want to undo the work I have spent time on. My go too patterns are by Diane Ericson and I choose The Cacicedo Coat #328. I copied the front and back pattern pieces, and cut my main fabric, a glazed Linen.

I continued to add fabric pieces and didn’t cover the main fabric completely as I like the look of some bare spaces and stitching that shows on the fabric.. This process takes a while as sometimes I had to walk away and revisit it with fresh eyes!
I used a basic running stitch and 3 strands of Embroidery Floss. I gathered a variety of colors and randomly used them. I found the less I obsessed about it the better I liked the stitches. I pinned the pieces first and them I used small pieces of fusible web to hold the fabric in place. I started out with the right side up but found that I worked faster when I sewed from the back and checked periodically that I was happy with the outcome.
I like sewing diagonally and as I got adventurous I liked changing directions and sewing in a spiral as it changed the texture on the different fabrics. I tried to use the different pieces of fabric to add some movement also using smaller and longer pieces.

A technique I learned from Diane was to finish/ line each piece before assembling the vest. I got the idea to use a Blanket stitch and I liked the result so much I decided to assemble the garment completely with this stitch. It was surprisingly easy and it finished the edges nicely also. I trimmed away some of the cotton that in a few areas was showing through the Blanket stitch. I left the back seam open and like the effect of the lining peaking through.

I like this way of constructing garments and it it’s great way to work on a project when traveling, relaxing etc.

I have started some new pieces, garments to be decided.