Confession: I didn’t finish this Fake it Friday project yet, so there will be an update tomorrow 🙂
Usually I have Fridays off from my day job managing a choir, but since we have our first concert of the performing season coming up soon, I spend most of today at my computer instead of my sewing machine.
But I’m too excited to share this Fake It to wait until it’s done!
I live in the Northwest, and I love camping, so outdoor gear is an important component of my wardrobe. I love the look of the furry Patagonia vests over flannel shirts! At $99, however, I could make vests for my whole family… so I decided to fake one for this fall.
First I found the furry fabric in the “minky” section of Craft Warehouse. What is “minky” fabric? It is a luxuriously soft substrate with a silky touch that resembles real mink to the touch. Its short pile makes it soft like cashmere. Because it is a synthetic material it is washable and durable, and often used for baby blankets and plush toys.
The one negative of working with minky fabrics is the tuffs of fluff that end up all over the sewing room after you cut it!
Because this minky is so light, and I’m making this vest for fall, I’m going to underline it with Warm and Natural quilt batting. And to make it easy, I’ll use a spray baste to stick the two layers together. I’ll line it with a simple coat weight, shiny polyester lining. The shiny polyester will glide over flannel shirts and sweaters with ease and will also be machine washable.
For the pattern, I am altering this Jolie puffer vest pattern:
This pattern has a separate front and back yoke, but I don’t want a yoke seam. To eliminate that seam, I’ve overlapped the yoke pieces with their respective front and back pieces, and traced out the new single patter pieces onto Swedish tracing paper. Swedish tracing paper is the best for making long-lasting patterns! I love this stuff and use it all the time.
Once the pattern was cut out, I checked to see if the fabric had a direction – meaning, does it look different from one way or another? If it is directional, you just have to make sure that you keep the pattern laid out in the same direction for all the cuts – if the top is on the right, then all the tops of the pattern pieces need to be on the right. This minky is light and lofty, so scissors are a better cutting tool than a rotary cutter.
Because the minky has a little stretch, I’ll use a longer stitch length than usual to ensure the seams will be able to stretch a little bit with the fabric, and not be so stiff that they rip. Now that it is all cut out, I can’t wait to sew it up tomorrow morning in time to wear it to the soccer games!
Took a while longer than I thought to find the right zipper for the front. I had bought a zipper that was too short! Oops!
I love how it turned out! The hubby says it might be a little big, so I might take it in on the sides, but I’m going to see how it fits over a flannel and a sweater first. I hate looking like my outerwear is too small. I think you look slimmer when your clothes fit properly, and I don’t think outerwear should look stretched… though a lot of pictures on Pinterest of Patagonia vests in particular do show a snug fit. Regardless, I was right to underline it with the warm and natural – it sewed up better with the structure that the warm and natural provided and it will be nice and warm with that as an inner layer.
And I couldn’t resist adding a slipperie label where the Patagonia label would be… 🙂
Zippered side pocket make me happy!
