What I made: A vest from scraps of “cutter quilts”.

Why I made it: For layering over puff sleeve outfits (of course, lol), and because I’m enjoying practicing simple garment-making by tracing clothes I already own & using scraps of things.

What I practiced: Drafting a “pattern” from clothing I own: in this case, I traced a Mallow Soft Goods tank (roughly) to inform my vest shape.

Skills I learned:

Applying store-bought bias tape
Zigzag stitching quilt blocks together (not really a skill, but a first for me!)
Stitching in the ditch! (so wild! So interesting)

How it came together:

First I zigzag stitched together pieces of quilt to make a piece of fabric that was roughly the size of a crop tank I already own, comparing my patchwork to the tank and adjusting as I went (a very made-up way of making fabric that is suitable for a garment). Once I had made fabric that was roughly the dimensions of my tank, I laid the tank down and cut around it- leaving a bit of room between the tank and the cutting line for seam allowance (very imprecisely).

I sewed the front and back together at the shoulder seams and side seams, tried it on and ended up taking it in slightly under the arms (by literally just sewing a slightly diagonal seam that ran into the seam I already made - probably ill-advised, you could just seam rip it).

I had originally zigzag stitched over my shoulder seam edges & side seam edges, but later decided to go over them with bias binding cuz it was a lot less messy.

I let the project sit for a few weeks while I mulled over whether I would make my own binding, decided that the $15 for the pre-made bias tape was worth it in this case, and waited for the binding to arrive in the mail.

While I waited, I cut the vest open in the front (prior to this it had been a crop that was closed on both front and back, and then I eyeballed a curved edge (to avoid any mitered corners when I applied the bias binding).

The bias tape arrived and I googled “applying bias tape to edges” to see if my janky method was the easiest way - it was, in fact, not the easiest way, and this time around, I learned to open up my binding properly and to “stitch in the ditch” (see skills learned) to stitch it relatively discreetly.

I tried it on after binding it and I was happy with the fit, but I do still want to add some kind of little closure at the top - still undecided on exactly what, though!

And that’s it! That’s how I made a simple little vest out of quilt scraps, a sweet little layer to wear over my puffy-sleeve creations :)