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!

WIP: Playing with (Faux) Fur

 Here's a sneak peek at my latest take on the current pink fur trend:

The picture really doesn't do justice to the brightness and softness of this fur

I've been totally inspired by this Versace number and it so happens that I recently managed to get my hands on some (free) left over hot pink fun fur. It was a sign: I had to go bold for my next project, and so, I am.....


Just kidding.


Although I do admire anybody who can pull off something like that and make it work as a fashion statement, (like this lady) I don't think it's quite...me.

So the truth is, I've been working out the muslin for the fur vest in this pattern:

Why bother making a muslin, you ask, it's a loose fitting vest?...Well...Exactly.

It's the only pattern I could find that somewhat resembled the vest I have in mind, but I didn't want to end-up with a boxy, shapeless garment, especially for 40 bucks worth of faux-fur...

So I made a muslin and I'm glad I did.

The back was WAYYY too big. I didn't want to add darts as I was afraid they would create to much bulk. So after playing around and pinning extra fabric here and there, I actually ended up with princess seams.

The back was big enough that I managed to recut all the pieces from that one original piece

The front was pretty straight forward at first. I pinned a horizontal tuck of about 2.5cm above the bust and did a SBA. After that I still had extra fabric at the armhole that looked like it wanted to become a dart. I tried pinning said dart and rotating it to the side seam instead of the armhole but that was a fail (haven't had much luck with rotating darts in the front so far....). So next I tried lowering the armhole, and as I was about to recut a muslin of the front, I remembered that I did, in fact, have some (free) left over pink fun fur from a recent stuffed animal project, so I cut my new front in it.

Once sewn up, the extra fabric and armhole gap were still there but it didn't look as bad as on the cotton muslin. I managed to remove the excess almost completely by doing a sloping shoulder adjustment and taking in a bit at the front side seam just under the armhole.

I'm really glad I had the opportunity to try the adjusted pattern on the fun fur. It worked out great as the nap of the pink fur is pretty similar to that of the faux-fur I'm planning on using (i.e fairly long), so I can expect this to be quite accurate with what the final garment will look like. Also, I wasn't sure if the flaws showing on the cotton muslin would show more with the fur (due to thickness) or less or the same, and now I have my answer: small wrinkles definitely show less, thanks to the thickness, and although main flaws are just as obvious, it was easier to find a satisfying fix with the fur rather than spending more time tweaking the regular muslin.

I've made all the adjustments to the pattern now and I can't wait to actually cut into my faux-fur...