Boy's vest

Still working on catching up with the promised Christmas presents.  This one is for my nephew.

Kwik Sew 2314

I asked my sister what size to make.  She said a boy's 16.  When I looked at the body measurements for the largest size in boys' patterns, they were exactly the same as the men's small.  It made sense to me, to buy the men's pattern, because boys only grow larger, and I would certainly get more use from the men's pattern.

The fabric is a cotton Japanese ikat -  remnants "inherited" from a friend.  I'd been musing over this fabric for a vest pour moi, but - it decided differently.  It's still a vest.  There are still a few skinny scraps left that may become a bag of some sort for me.  Now that it's made up, the vest looks rather large, but, as I said - boys grow, so it won't be too large for long, I'm sure.  I'm not going to spend too much time pondering what would have been the difference had I used a boy's pattern.  Not too thrilled with the lining options that I came up with.  The red on the ikat is rather a rusty tone.  Pure red lining really didn't work.  This rather orangey colour was actually the best choice.  And yes, those are real welt pockets, not just fakes.  According to instructions, the pocket should have been entirely made of the outer fabric.  Given the thickness of the cotton, I thought that it would have made too big a lump, so I cut the pockets from a scrap of black lining fabric and attached a rectangle of the cotton for the part that would show.  The buttons are vintage men's suit buttons.

Back detail - the all-important back belt and buckle.  Now that I'm looking at these pictures, I'm somewhat regretting not having used this fabric for myself.  On the other hand - what's done is done.  There are other fabrics in the stash to play with.  Guess I'd better scrounge up a box, wrap this up and send this vest off to Ottawa.  (Christmas in March?)

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