Ok, I need to first apologize for these awful pictures. (And my writing. It’s too late for me to be in front of a keyboard.)This vest was sewn during the wee hours of the morning when I was finally done with my work for the day. Translation: awful basement lighting + sleepy Amie = pretty bad pics. It’s kinda cool though, because the color of the fabric magically chances color from picture to picture!
…yay…
Hopefully you get the idea though.
You probably already know that David and I are going to be Flynn and Rapunzel for Halloween this year. I decided to make the costumes (with some help from my mom and some great suggestions from you guys). I made my dress entirely from patterns so no tutorial there, but I totally winged this vest! Honestly the only technique I really used was the making of the actual vest, the rest was merely looking at pictures of Flynn’s vest online and figuring out how I could make my look the same. There was no planning here.
I thought his vest would be totally easy, but it turns out there are a lot of little details that I didn’t even notice on his vest! I did my best to point them out with the help of Picnik. I decided to forgo the collar of the vest, something told me David wouldn’t be too thrilled with such a high collar. But I’ll walk you through everything else I did
To make one, you will need:
- A yard or so of bluish fleece
- Husband’s t shirt (or little man’s or whoever this is for)
- Lots of matching thread
- Three thick hair ties
- Three large coat buttons
- A lot of patience. Ok, that was just me because I had to figure this all out along the way
(Depending on if you got regular fleece or anti pill fleece, your fabric may or may not have a right/wrong side.) Turn the t shirt inside out, stuff the sleeves in, fold it in half, and lay it down on your folded fabric (right side up). Trace around the t shirt (I used chalk) with an extra half inch for seam allowance. Add a little extra room in the shoulders too, because Flynn has sleeves! Cut it out. This will be the back piece.
Ta dah!! Back piece.
Next, you’ll need two front pieces. Lay the t shirt back down, trace it again, but this time NOT on the fold (right side up again). I added a little bit to the front (which is why it’s slanted in the front instead of straight) so there would be room for the vest to button. Also added a slight v neck.
Three pieces now, a back piece and two front pieces. That’s all you need!
Remember how I pointed out that the vest has cool texture? You could probably use some sort of corduroy or something…but fleece was on sale and I didn’t have to finish the edges if I didn’t want to, score one for the cheap/lazy woman! Anyway, I got the idea from {
this faux chenille blanket tutorial} I loved how the lines and lines and lines of sewing made pretty texture, so I used the same technique her! Using a picture of Flynn’s vest as a guide, I drew out where I wanted to sew. The lines are about 1 1/2 inches apart. I tried to use a ruler, I really did. But I failed. Sew a straight line along the lines you drew.
The effect is pretty subtle when you stare at it, but it really adds to the overall costume and it’s totally worth the extra half our of work.
Forgot to take a picture, but do the same thing for the lines above the…I think it’s called the yolk of the vest? That diagonal thing along the chest. So you’ll have sewn vertical lines running down under the chest, and diagonal lines above. Just look at the picture, it will make more sense. I sewed a little strip of fleece down over the diagonal line I made because that’s what it looked like I should do.
Once I was done texturizing each front piece, I hemmed it along the edges 1/4 inch. Since fleece doesn’t fray, I only folded it down once.
Looking pretty good so far! Love all that texture.
Next, sew the vest together. Pin the right sides of each front piece to the right sides of the back piece. Sew, using a straight stitch and 1/2 inch seams. Don't sew the front pieces together!
The sleeves. I put the vest on the hubs and marked with the chalk where his shoulders were. (Remember how we left a little bit of extra fabric in the shoulders?) I drew a straight line down from that mark, and then sewed along it using a teeny tiny zig zag stitch (I actually used the “button hole” stitch.) They aren’t real sleeves…but it’s close enough!
I was going to put belt loops on anyway, but then I was looking at pictures and noticed that he actually did have belt loops. Awesome. I put the vest back on the hubs and marked his waist with the chalk. Then, just three strips of felt sewed directly onto the back. One on each side seam, one in the middle. I did nothing to try and hide seams here, you could probably be all seamstress-like and do that but my laziness got the best of me.
To make the “buckles” I just used hair ties and buttons. Flynn’s vest had some pretty cool hook and eye bronze looking buckles, but for the sake of time, money, and laziness, I went with this method. Mark where you want your buckles to be wit the chalk. Use three thick, brown hair ties, and sew them right on the vest. Be careful and go slowly, your machine might put up a fuss sewing through all that elastic. To make it more squarish, my mom suggested sewing it down twice, once at the top and once at the bottom, so when the hair tie is pulled it looks more like a rectangle. Does that make sense?
Oh, I should also mention that I added some extra fleece in the back for stability. One single layer of fleece might not like be pulled and tugged on so much. Sew-in interfacing would have been good here, but I lacked it in my stash.
The next part SEEMS to be purely aesthetics, but sneaky you, you’re adding stability to the buttons. Yay! Mark the vest directly opposite of the hair ties, where the buttons will go. Sew down a small rectangle.
Sew them on both sides! Those buttons are gonna get a lot of action, the fleece needs to hold up to it all!
And sew on the buttons on top of those rectangles. These are lovely coat buttons from my grandma, thanks Mugga!!
Slap the vest on one very patient man. I’ll post an updated picture when I get one, hubs is not too keen on getting dressed up like this unless he has to.
Outfit breakdown
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Shirt: Owned it, we’ve got tons of white church shirts
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Vest: I just told you how to make that….
Belt: Owned it
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Pants: Owned, than you Best Buy for making them a part of your uniform
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“Boots”: from my sister’s high school drama department, they are just pull on prop boots
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Shoes: Sunday shoes
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Satchel: An old purse of mine from my Mugga, I think it’s Fossil?
A nice, cheap costume, Which is way more than I can say for my dress! Pics of that to come soon. And please let me know if this doesn’t make any sense. It’s late, I winged the whole thing, and….actually I can’t think of another reason.
