A Vest for Miss K--Seventh Finish 3rd Quarter FAL 2019

The fabric and pattern for the project

The toile print minkee fabric that was in Martha's stash was so soft and the print was so Miss K that I slipped it into my bag the last day I was in Martha's house. Also, in Martha's stash was a butterfly print polyester fabric that I picked up because Miss J likes butterflies.

I decided to use some of it as lining for this project. There was about 3/4 of a yard of the minkee. Although it was 58 inches wide, there wasn't enough fabric to cut out the sleeves for a jacket so I cut out a vest for Miss K instead!

Pieces cut and ready to stitch

I did need to draw a larger size pattern so that took a little time. I added a little to the length of the sleeves, front and back pieces. Who knows, I might make a jacket another time so making the sleeve pattern would save me time in the future!

Cutting out the lining was a challenge as that fabric was so slippery! When I finished cutting out the pieces, I had so few remaining scraps. The scraps that ran crosswise will be used to finish the armhole. The other small chunks might be used for a baby quilt back. We will see!

I had several white separating zippers on hand. Unfortunately, I didn't have the size that I needed on hand. So I stitched all the parts to the project that I could and the next time I was headed to town, I picked up the correct length zipper.

View of finished front

I started stitching the hood. Between the slippery lining and the non stretchiness of the minkee, getting the casing stitched was a challenge; but, I did it! I inserted the zipper, added the pockets, stitched the shoulder and neck seams. I made the lining and then sewed the lining to the vest. I cut a couple pieces of binding out of the minkee to finish the edge of the armhole. I was going for the puffy look on the vest; but in retrospect, I could have made the binding a bit longer so it would have been flat.

View of finished back

The inner edge of the lining which was next to the zipper, I stitched by hand. I also stitched the binding by hand. In Martha's stash there were three "Made with love by Grandma" labels. I inserted one into the back of the lining. I top stitched around the zipper and around the bottom of the vest. Finally, I inserted some cording into the hood. To ensure that the cording didn't pull through, I stitched through the layers at the top
center of the hood. I had a finished project!

It is luxuriously soft. It will be a challenge to not give this vest away to Miss K until next Christmas! I used one and half yards of fabric for this project. I have now stitched  63 and 3/4 yards of fabric from my stash. I'm wondering if I could stitch 100 yards of fabric from my stash. . .hm m m m. . . .I don't know. I probably could if I worked on some larger projects. I'll ponder that possibility!

This was goal number 16 on my 3rd Quarter FAL list. It is my seventh finish for the quarter.