best motorcycle 2013: "Vest" of friends (the boy vest)

So today I am sharing the boy vest from the "vest" of friends pair. I seriously love boys in vests. It is a great way for them to look hip and cool, and dressed up if desired. I love pairing vests with jeans for that "casual put together" look. As a total bonus my sweat pant loving little dude (seriously if he could he would live in sweat pants/pj's) When I asked him to change out of his sweats so we could take pictures his arrangement was that as soon as I was done he could put his sweats back on. I agreed, and then when he got dressed he told me that he liked it so much he didn't want to change. I won't go as far to say he wanted to wear it to bed, because let's face it, if he doesn't change into his spider-man pj's then the world would not be safe at night... but he loved it, so that made me happy.

Making one for the dapper dude in your life is really easy. I was planning on sharing the pattern for Jude's (size 5ish) but I haven't had time to upload it yet so give me a little time and hopefully sometime this weekend I will have one to download if you like. However drafting one your self is really easy since a vest is basically a shirt without sleeves. Need help drafting a shirt? Here is what you would change:
Drop the under arm by about 1-2 inches (some nice wiggle room there)
Then the back is done cut 2 on the fold if you are lining.
Then for the front use the same piece only add 2 inches in width for the buttons.
Then add an angle in the front and an arrow like point at the bottom.
Done. Cut 4 not on fold.
Your pieces should look vest like if you did it right.

Then you will start by sewing the front and back pieces together at the shoulder. Do this for the lining (inside) and the outside pieces. I made Jude's vest reversible, which is great for style options.

On one side I wanted to add an embellishment while the other side would be plain. (you know options) I decided on an argyle design. So I cut out 2 brown diamonds from felt.

Then I cut out one gray diamond as well.

I sewed them all down around the edges and then I added some extra detail on the gray one using some embroidery floss.

Alright now for the somewhat tricky part. It is kind of hard to explain, (and totally not the "right" way) but it makes a lot more sense when you are doing it. To get all the seams on the inside so the vest is reversible, You will put the outside and inside pieces right sides together. Then you will sew along the white lines on the picture above. Be sure to leave the side seams open and the bottom hem open.

Ok a picture of what this looked like before was a mess, so let me explain, and this is the picture of the sewn seam. You want to line up the side seams right sides together matching the underarm seam up. The back piece will kind of sandwich around the front since the bottom hem is open. Then you will sew them together leaving the seam allowance at the bottom. So you are sewing up the side seam for the front and then down the side seam for the back. Make sense? No? Hopefully it will while you are doing it. Just remember you want the seam to be on the inside, like the picture above.

Then when you are done you will have all the seams on the inside and the bottom hem in the back will be the only seam left un done. It's a straight seam which is easy. Turn both edges in so the raw edges are to the inside. Then you could do a nice little invisible hand stitch, and avoid any topstitching. Personally, I don't have that kind of time and I like the detail that top stitching adds, but I could be alone in that. So I pressed the edges in and then top stitched the entire edge of the vest.