25 min lace vest!

I know I know, its another vest but what started this one is a customer came in recently and was looking at all the gorgeous new stretch lace and asked how hard it was to sew it?  I had no idea, so to solve the mystery, I decided to make something at 4pm one afternoon in the shop!

I call it my 25 minute vest, did not involve a pattern and just decided to try and use simple logic to create a vest with minimum fuss!  And this is the result!  Big question - is it easy to sew?  Absolutely!  If you like sewing stretchy fabrics.

Now I'm not sure if anyone will be able to follow this entirely but I've provided photos to give you an idea of how I got away with not using a pattern (and made it up as I went along!).

This fabric is called Mulatto Lace.  It is 123cm wide with a really nice frilly selvage edge.  Its a rayon/nylon/spandex blend and super stretchy and gorgeously drapy.

First step was to cut fabric to allow for length of vest and approx. 5 cm for seam allowances/hem etc.

I laid it out folded in half across so selvage edges were lined up.  Right or wrong sides didnt matter during the cutting out process.








I then folded one edge back on itself and beyond the original fold and left approx 18cm - 20cm folded as you can see in the pic.

I then pinched and picked up the new top fold each end and let it hang to fold the bottom edge back in line with the new top fold.  Does that make sense?  

Basically I folded the other piece under to match what I had folded back already on top.  So selvage edges were together again on the left but there was an additional fold inside the fold.  That hidden fold is what I imagined to be the back panel of vest.  Next step is to cut arm holes.

  I chopped from the top end (or one end) and did a guess-amite of the shape and size of an armhole.  I did have a basic t-shirt pattern armhole to guide me as a backup.  I also cut about 9 cm off at a slight angle for the shoulder seams.

Then next step was to undo that hidden fold of fabric so its all back to the original fold in half.  You can see the arm holes now and the fold on the right, shoulder seams cut out.  Last step was to cut a mini back neck line out near the fold.

 Pattern cutting was complete.  Next step is to join the shoulder seams.  This stage is where I needed to work out what would be the right side and wrong side of fabric.  With right sides together I found the shoulder angled parts and sewed them together.

Then the rest was simply folding over the edges inwards and sewing a straight stitch to hem/edge everything that needed it.  The neck line around to the start of the frilly selvage which I left as is.  The arm holes and around the bottom.

This type of fabric is very forgiving for fit as its busy, stretchy and drapey.  Worth a go!