Vest Project

I started this vest before doing the stuffed turtle.  Now I'm returning to it and I feel like I'm having to relearn the whole pattern, Vogue V8048 View B. This project was brought on by a couple of yards of tea green silk with embroidered leaves and branches that I'd found at the Fabric Warehouse in Belleville, NJ for a couple of bucks.  The lining is a matching gold silk.  Though I'm learning a great deal from this project, I'm feeling like I should have my head examined and just made more shirts.

The first time I tried the double welt pockets, it was a disaster.  I decided to sew over the slits I'd made and make two smaller pockets higher up on the chest.  The Vogue pattern was really no help, so I used the book Tailoring (ISBN 978-1-58923-230-3) as a guide with better results.  I'm still not happy with the puckering at the pocket edges, so I'm going to try David Coffin's Making Trousers  (ISBN 978-1-58923-449-9) instructions next on scrap.

My muslin machine is a Singer Creative Touch 1036 that I'd bought on eBay for $27.  The Creative Touch has a speed baste stitch that my Pfaffs don't.  When I first plugged it in and hit the foot pedal, the machine surged and rocked badly and I thought my gamble was a bust.  The technicians at Pocono Sew'n'Vac are absolutely brilliant and after replacing the worn rubber motor mounts the machine purred like a happy old cat.

I wish my brain purred like that.  The pattern instructions which made perfect sense two weeks ago all seem to have got as fuzzy as the edges of the muslin.  Have no fear, all my muslins are wretched when they're done, but the silk should fare much better. Considering dropping the pockets all together.