Mini Wardrobe Contest -- Third Piece Finished!

I had some sewing time open up yesterday, so I spent those precious few hours working on the next piece of my mini wardrobe: the safari style vest.

I really like the way this turned out, even though I'm not terribly excited about the collar.  It also doesn't look a whole lot like what I had drawn in my storyboard, except in a general sort of way.  I was planning to use just a plain vest pattern and adding some pockets, but when I looked through my stash of patterns, I found that I didn't actually have a plain women's vest pattern.  Amazing.  I tend to collect plain patterns, so I can use them for a base and then apply my own creativity to them (which I haven't done lately, but the intention is there).

Instead, I found this Butterick pattern, B5616,  which I decided was close enough to what I wanted.  The pockets are just plain patch pockets, rather than expanding cargo pockets, but since I used a stretch sateen they kind of expand anyway.  It's unlined, which is okay -- I just serged the seams and some of them are topstitched down as well.  And it has a higher neckline than I was quite envisioning, along with the collar, which I wasn't intending at all.    But I decided to go ahead anyway.

I traced a straight size 6 in the View B with length of View A and pretty much followed the instructions.  I had to take in the sides about two inches and gave it some waistline shaping, of which it has practically none. The envelope says that it's loose-fitting, but even though I've used lots of Big4 patterns, I wasn't expecting quite so much ease.  I left off the back ties, though on reflection, maybe I should have put them on -- the vest still fits a bit more loosely than I'd like.  I'll probably sew this again, in a non-stretch fabric, with the other collar option.  I have a really cute brown and pink paisley Kaufman corduroy that I think would work great with this pattern.  Oh, wait.  It's a stretch corduroy.  Oh, well. Whatever.

All in all, I like it.  And it goes well with the linen shirt and with the tank top.  I still have a few days before the contest ends.  If I get a move on, I can get those pants finished.