Remnants laid out for design ideas in my art journal.
From being in the design industry for so many years, I have
amassed an amazing stash of discontinued upholstery and drapery
fabrics all sorted, folded and stacked by colorway in my art studio.
While adding to and pilfering through the stack of indigo blue
swatches I had the inspiration to create a vest to wear with blue
jeans. My favorite fabric was a costly crewel floral fabric
in multi-tones of blue on a cream background and I chose to use it
to create a large shawl collar and part of the front panels. Cutting it
out can be challenging as many of the swatches loaned to interior
designers have a large grommet placed in the center of the sample.
I created my own pattern out of an old cotton sheet and used a
mannequin for fitting as I had created it with ten separate pieces so
that I could incorporate some of the smaller swatches of fabrics into
it. I selected a solid cotton blue to trim the collar with, creating a
half inch border around the edge to set it apart from all the other
fabrics that were chosen. I selected a two-tone blue lattice effect with a cream
background for the upper back and found a fun border fabric with
large indigo blue X's on it for creating a wide waist panel on the back
and a found a heavy cotton with uneven stripes for the lower
portion and intentionally left the hem with the unraveled selvage
edge. I chose to put pleats in it and sewed the tops down for a more
flattering look below the waist.
Dark colors on the side panels always create a slimmer profile so I
cut up an old Levis jackets' sleeves and used them with the existing
slit opening at the bottom for a better fit and then cut out the two
pockets for the lower half of the front panels and found some cool
vintage buttons to replace the ones that were missing. I attached
them to the top portion at an angle just for design fun. I chose blue
striped pillow ticking and cut it on the bias to finish the armholes
and inside the collar.