Saturday 20 August 2011

Sewing for others - explorer waistcoat



After finishing my Summer Essentials sewing I have taken a break from sewing for me.

Instead, I've made this waistcoat for T from "Little Things to Sew" by Liesl Gibson. It is a lovely book of projects to make for children. With beautiful illustrations, that will look familiar to anyone who knows Liesl Gibson's pattern line Oliver+S.


I used some camo fabric that I was given on freecycle about three years ago.
You can see the waistcoat in the book is much more preppy looking. However, T wanted something for being out in the woods and chose the camo fabric from my stash. I was a little concerned he would look like someone waiting in the back woods for the end of the world, but I guess at eight years old you can get away with a bit of camoflauge. He requested no buttons so there are none.


The lining is made with the remnants of fabric I used to make my trousers and skirt. The arm edges are bound with self made bias binding.

The instructions are clear with diagrams and easy to follow.

The trickiest bit was making three pockets (two front, one back) with bellows. The book gives you the choice of patch pockets or the bellows ones. I am glad though that I did the bellows as they give more roomy pockets for collecting treasure. Now I have made them once I have been thinking they would be great pockets for a bag.

5 comments:

  1. I can imagine T being an intrepid explorer wearing this and it will be one of his favourite things to wear for along time to come. Nice binding and pockets by the way!

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  2. This is such a cool piece of boy-wear. My boys at this age would have LOVED the camo, the big pockets and the whole personality of this waistcoat. And being a backwoodsman too - I bet this was truly the envy of the others!!

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  3. Such a cool little vest, and those pockets are perfect for storing boy's treasures. All my kids adored camo!

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  4. This is such a perfect vest. I want one myself for going into the woods.

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  5. Thank you for the comments. He is a bit camera shy so I have had trouble grabbing a photo of it being worn. Sigrid, I am sure this pattern would easily grade up!!

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