Sneak Peek: Vest BWOF 01-2009-124

I'm almost done with my vest ! It is the following pattern from BWOF January 2009:

All I have left to do is finish the bound button-holes on the lining side, sew the buttons on and close the center seam of the lining.

I made a slight alteration to the pattern by redrafting the neckline to be a bit rounder and wider (though looking at the burda photo, the difference isn't really obvisous).

For the lining, I used a piece of fabric that I got at Fabricana. It's was also a roll remnant but I got a larger piece of the same fabric from a new roll with the intention to make a dress.
Using it for lining was a good way to get an idea of how to handle it. I'm not so sure that I want to use the bigger piece for the dress anymore. It's polyester, and it's got major static. It also frays BIG TIME, so much so that I zigzag-stitched all the edges, even though it's on the inside of the lining and won't show, by fear that it would fray up to the seams and the whole thing would eventually fall apart...

The overall construction was pretty straight-forward and din't present any difficulty.
The only tricky part was attaching the lining to the outside. While keeping the center seam of the lining partly open, you're supposed to sew both layers, right sides together, around all the edges and then turn the vest back to the right side by reaching through the lining opening. Sewing the shoulder seams for both the outside and the lining, requires a bit of attention if you don't want to sew the wrong parts together.

This is the shoulder seam from the inside. All you can see is the fraying ? My point exactly...

Also, I realized I really need to get some proper pressing tools. A sleeve board and a few wooden spoons are ok, but not enough to get perfectly pressed seems, especially as you get more edges sewn together and it becomes harder to get anything between the layers. And it's a lot of back and forth between the iron and the machine as you want to press each seam before you sew the next one, otherwise you won't be able to press anything.

I also decided at the last minute that I wanted to do bound button-holes. I followed Gertie's very clear tutorial. The process is very similar (if not identical) to making welt pockets except much smaller. I used scraps of black polyester lining instead of the organza. To figure out the positionning, I cut little pieces of paper of the size of the button-hole and placed them on the vest lying flat, then I pinned them on and put the vest on to check the position on the worn garment. Then I hand-basted around the paper with contrasting thread so that the positioning would be visible on the wrong side.

The whole process would have been way easier if I'd made them before attaching the lining, but like I said it was a last-minute decision. In the end think I did pretty well.
Hopefully by the end of next week I'll be completely done and able to post final photos...