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Sunday snog-fest on the sewing room windowsill.

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WHAT?

I participated in Friday Night With Friends this week, and decided to get a start on my vest.

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I’d been having second thoughts about my fabric choices for this.  All three fabrics here are very lightweight synthetics with a lot of drape.  But look at that photograph of the jacket in taffeta.  The suggested fabrics also include jacquard, broadcloth, linen, and tweed.  All fabrics with some body.  And the pattern is meant to be oversized–I sized down to an L and the finished hip measurement is still 13″ larger than my hips.  The vest is designed to stand out from the body, and I was afraid that my drapey fabrics would just make it look like a tent.

So I went to the stash again and came up with some gorgeous corduroy.  This is for the right front:

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I wasn’t able to capture the depth of color in this–it’s amazing.  Those are gold highlights and the background is black, though it looks blue here.

And this is for the left front:

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It’s black, but I’ve lightened it to show the texture.

So I cut the vest out on Friday and sewed a bit on Saturday, and this is what I have so far:

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Hmmmm . . . don’t know how I feel about it yet.  Especially the puffy collar.  But, at the same time, I feel like everything about this project is new and a bit risky, and I’m just going to go with it for a while.  It’s a style I’ve never worn, with various features that are new to me, and I’m just going to wait to form an opinion until I see all the elements together.  These fabrics were just sitting around in a box, and at least now there’s a chance they’ll become something very cool.

I used to have a supervisor at a former job who was a terrible control freak about certain things, especially food.  You remember the sandwich-ordering scene from “When Harry Met Sally,” right?  Like that.  Then one day it occurred to me that controlling everything like that–wanting it the way you want it, as Sally put it–means you are never pleasantly surprised.  Like I frequently am by things like this and this.  So I am prepared to be pleasantly surprised by how this vest turns out.  🙂

This project has reminded me of how much I DESPISE gathering, however.  Gathered and tiered skirts were a thing when I was a teenager and I spent so many miserable hours wrangling long strips of cotton, and YUCK.  Was glad to get that over with.

Another change of plans that happened this weekend was this:

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My honey came home from a bike ride Saturday afternoon and asked if I would make him another fleece cycling jersey, but this time with a full zip and thicker, warmer fleece.  And off we went to Joann’s to use our coupons and get supplies.

And yes, I did try to talk him into the tie dye fleece, or the fleece with the dogs on it, or the fleece with the huge black and yellow houndstooth, but we came home with the black.

Sigh.

So my plan right now is to finish the vest; I’m adding a lining, but that doesn’t really take any more time than facings.  Then I want to cut out the cycling jersey and my red jacket.

It’s going to be a very fuzzy week here.  🙂

STH