I had finished sewing my jeans, I had a scant 50 cm of elastic denim
left.
Unrelated to that, I had just finished drafting a vest with Valentina,
after the Cutters’ Practical Guide to the Cutting of Ladies Garments.
A new pattern requires a (wearable) mockup. 50 cm of leftover fabric
require a quick project. The decision didn’t take a lot of time.
As a mockup, I kept things easy: single layer with no lining, some edges
finished with a topstitched hem and some with bias tape, and plain tape
on the fronts, to give more support to the buttons and buttonholes.
I did add pockets: not real welt ones (too much effort on denim), but
simple slits covered by flaps.
piece; there is a slit in the middle that has been finished with
topstitching.
To do them I marked the slits, then I cut two rectangles of pocketing
fabric that should have been as wide as the slit + 1.5 cm (width of the
pocket) + 3 cm (allowances) and twice the sum of as tall as I wanted the
pocket to be plus 1 cm (space above the slit) + 1.5 cm (allowances).
Then I put the rectangle on the right side of the denim, aligned so that
the top edge was 2.5 cm above the slit, sewed 2 mm from the slit, cut,
turned the pocketing to the wrong side, pressed and topstitched 2 mm
from the fold to finish the slit.
other sides; it does not lay flat on the right side of the fabric
because the finished slit (hidden in the picture) is pulling it.
Then I turned the pocketing back to the right side, folded it in half,
sewed the side and top seams with a small allowance, pressed and turned
it again to the wrong side, where I sewed the seams again to make a
french seam.
And finally, a simple rectangular denim flap was topstitched to the
front, covering the slits.
I wasn’t as precise as I should have been and the pockets aren’t exactly
the right size, but they will do to see if I got the positions right (I
think that the breast one should be a cm or so lower, the waist ones are
fine), and of course they are tiny, but that’s to be expected from a
waistcoat.
The other thing that wasn’t exactly as expected is the back: the pattern
splits the bottom part of the back to give it “sufficient spring over
the hips”. The book is probably published in 1892, but I had already
found when drafting the foundation skirt that its idea of “hips”
includes a bit of structure. The “enough steel to carry a book or a cup
of tea” kind of structure. I should have expected a lot of spring, and
indeed that’s what I got.
To fit the bottom part of the back on the limited amount of fabric I had
to piece it, and I suspect that the flat felled seam in the center is
helping it sticking out; I don’t think it’s exactly bad, but it is
a peculiar look.
Also, I had to cut the back on the fold, rather than having a seam in
the middle and the grain on a different angle.
Anyway, my next waistcoat project is going to have a linen-cotton lining
and silk fashion fabric, and I’d say that the pattern is good enough
that I can do a few small fixes and cut it directly in the lining, using
it as a second mockup.
As for the wrinkles, there is quite a bit, but it looks something that
will be solved by a bit of lightweight boning in the side seams and in
the front; it will be seen in the second mockup and the finished
waistcoat.
As for this one, it’s definitely going to get some wear as is, in casual
contexts. Except. Well, it’s a denim waistcoat, right? With a very
different cut from the “get a denim jacket and rip out the sleeves”, but
still a denim waistcoat, right? The kind that you cover in patches,
right?
And I may have screenprinted a “home sewing is killing fashion” patch
some time ago, using the SVG from wikimedia commons / the Home
Taping is Killing Music page.
And. Maybe I’ll wait until I have finished the real waistcoat. But I
suspect that one, and other sewing / costuming patches may happen in the
future.
No regrets, as the words on my seam ripper pin say, right? :D