Finished Project: Faux fur vest

This is one of my rare UFO. I started this project quite a long time ago. I had made a muslin and put it all together, only to realize it was a bit too boxy for my taste.

Faux fur is a bit tedious to work with, as it invovles trimming the hair from all the seam allowances. So after working on if for a while, I kind of ran out of steam. Plus spring was coming, so I put it away. Actually it sat on my dressform for over a year...

Then finally, just before christmas, I found myself without a sewing project. I didn't want to start something from scratch as we were going away for the holidays. So I pulled the vest out of the closet (it had migrated from the dressform to the closet before summer) I took another look at it and started pinning in every seam. I also decided to give it a lower V-shaped neckline, as opposed to the higher round shape that contrinubted to make it look overwhelming on my figure.

Eventually I managed to turn it into something that I'm happy with. With the fur it's not so obvious, but the V-shape actually makes a big difference, and thanks to the princess seams I added in the back, I was able to take it in in four different places thus balancing things a bit better.

The pattern is Simplicity 2285 - my early post about the muslin has a bit more detail about the changes I made. Also, Sonja just posted a great article on her blog about how to sew with fur, full of great tips.

I'm really glad that I finished it, I was so excited about the faux fur when I firts bought it. It was one of those purchases where I went to the store a few times, petting it for a minute, but then walking away, before I finally made the leap of buying a meter of it.

I've already worn this a few times, it's quite comfortable and warm and goes with pretty much anything. So glad I finally got the motivation to finishing this!