Putting it all together

Process photos as the the fabric is attached to the lining.

Notching and slashing on all the curves before turning it right side out

All turned right side out

Shoulders and one side seam left open to facilitate turning the vest. They were hand sewn closed.

Fashion Fabric attached and pocket flaps

In these photos, pocket flaps are attached to the side seams. These pocket flaps will hold the grommets for the back closure. During fittings, the designer decided that the shape we were using for the pockets would be perfect for this process so I created two extra pocket flaps and sewed them into the back of the garment.

View from the inside of the garment

Working Pockets

Pictures of the step by step process of making workable pockets including my practice muslin pocket.

I didn't even cry once making them.

Trim Time

For this garment we used an applied trim which extended from the garment instead of being set inside it.  Because of the location of the buttons, on the center front of the garment I first sewed on a 1/2" thick ribbon to apply the trim to so the location of the buttons wouldn't have to be altered.

To create the trim I cut 2 inch pieces of my fabric along the bias line to create  strips that were then sewn together to make one long piece

Ribbon attached to center front

Trim was ironed down 1/2" on one side before application. Here it is sewn to the inside of the vest and ready to be turned over.

Turning it over and trying to make neat corners which was difficult. I ended up having to sew the corners down to keep neat lines.

Carefully keeping the right angles together while preparing to attach trim

Turning the trim over and attaching it to the front of the garment

The trouble corner that had to be vigorously hand sewn into place

Buttonholes

This vest had lots of button holes (15 to be exact). The pockets, thankfully, had fake button holes, created with a tight zig zag stitch. However, all 15 on the front of the vest were real button holes and were my last big challenge to finishing the garment.

Practice button holes. Lots of them.

Button holes! You can also see the fold line here which shows where the revere should fold over.

View from the inside of the vest

Button holes set in at 1/4" over the center front line

Back closures and grommets

I put holes in each corner of the pocket flaps on the back of the garment and used a hammer to attach the grommets. Then I fed leather cording through the grommets to create the back closure.

It's Finished (almost)

Pictures of the completed vest.

Distressed

Here I am distressing the vest to fit the character, a country bumpkin. I accomplished this by rubbing a hair product, Cholesterol, on the parts of the vest that would wear the most (the pockets, buttons, and button holes)