New Look K6035 Vest Top III

I'm usually a pattern first, fabric later kind of girl, but this fabric that had been sitting on the very top shelf at Hillsborough had been on my mind. So when I nipped in and found it within reach I nabbed the rest of the roll before anyone else did.

I'd acquired about 2 meters, but as a girl usually noted for wearing black, I thought a whole dress out of this wasn't going to sit comfortably.
Although it's pretty simple, my first New Look K6035 Vest Top is a firm fave, especially around the office. I thought I'd marry up my love for this fabric and the success of the pattern and make another.

It's not the trickiest pattern in the box, it's made up of two pieces- a front and back, and binding for the neck and arms. The centre front is gathered between notches and there's cute little splits at the bottom of the side seams. I knew the hardest, but also most important part of this pattern was going to be pattern-matching the different zig-zags at the side seams.

I cut everything out as single layers, matching up the pattern as I folded over the first half I'd cut. This makes for a lovely symmetrical piece! I know I'm always on about it, but honestly I absolutely swear by this for accurate cutting. For the back half I laid my paper pattern on top of the front I had cut, matched the notches and physically drew on where the zig-zags met the side seam so I could line this up with my fabric underneath before cutting the back piece.

Making up was as follows:

-French-seamed the shoulder seams
-2x rows of gathering stitches between front notches
-French-seamed side seams, making sure to pattern match as I went along. It's one thing having the pieces to match, but it can still be tricky to keep both pieces in place while stitching. I used a billion plins to keep each zig-zag together and if I wan't happy, I unpicked and did it again until I was.
-Stitched the binding ends together to create a continuous piece that is stretched to fit the neck and arm holes (not really stetched much though because it's pretty much the same length so its not tricky!)
-Pulled gathering stitches to fit the neck band

Then it's just a case of sewing on the binding and hemming the bottom really.

So so happy with the matching on the side seams! The vest isn't a close fit, but there was no way I was altering the sides once they were done!
To finish off I made a super quick head-band with a little left-over fabric. Wore the combo to work and got described as looking 'Very Boho!', so think I got it right?

x

Currently listening to: Master of Alchemy, Electric Wizard
Location: Park Hill Flats, Sheffield