Design 33 Groovy linen vest [Archive]

stik

01-31-2013, 06:21 PM

I had hoped to have this finished for the "Finish What You Started" challenge this month. I'm really close! I'm letting the Fray Check set on the buttonholes, and I will cut them open and sew buttons tomorrow. Since I'm not going to make it under the wire for that, I thought I should at least post a review.

The cool thing about this pattern: It goes all the way up to size 170. It is damn cute.

The not so cool thing: TEN buttonholes, and tricky darts on the side panel. In the end, I sewed the darts from the widest part at the center to the point, instead of from top to bottom. The buttons on the side/back panel are positioned so that my buttonhole foot runs into the dart partway through a buttonhole, which is not insurmountable, but requires some management. It would have felt insurmountable to me when I was a button noob, 20 buttonholes ago. This time, I was aware that my machine has this issue, so I kept a close eye on the dart and gave the feed dogs a little assist by shoving lightly when the piece got hung up on it.

Modifications I made: My dd is 11, so we left off the ruffle. I machine-embroidered a wolf on the back shoulder of the lining - my dd loves wolves but she is 11 and she wanted to keep her embellishment a little private. I also replaced the shirring with two pieces of elastic. Next time, I will probably use the Feliz method of sewing a patch on and running a couple pieces of elastic through that.

Modifications I did not make, but would endorse: The side/back buttons are not going to see a lot of use - You could just sew the side panels to the back with a few hand stitches, with or without buttons for embellishment.