Burdastyle Waistcoat - Looking swell.

Ever since I made my wide-legged wool trousers back in the winter. I had wanted to make an accompanying waistcoat. I'd thought about a jacket, but there wasn't enough fabric for that.

So off I went, hunting through my stash of Burdastyle magazines until I found this pattern. It's #134 from 12/2012. The only image I can fin on line is for the pattern that includes sleeves - which is #135. It's basically the same pattern though.

Unusually for a waistcoat, I cut the outer back piece from the main fabric rather than from lining fabric. I made the size 38 - which is my usual size in Burda and the fit was pretty good. I have a small waist and often need to adjust patterns here, so on this pattern, I increased the width of the darts to give better back shaping - but that was the only alteration I made to the pattern. It's lined with lining fabric from my stash.

It was a good job I had some spare fabric as I made a massive mess on the welt pocket first time around. I followed Burdstyle's (rather sparse) instructions, but due to the fabric being prone to fraying and that I tried to rush and didn't interface properly the welt turned out to be a real mess.

So I recut the front pieces - just enough fabric left. I then used a tried and tested way of making welt pockets - using a similar technique to a bound buttonhole. This gave a much better finish and I've pleased with the result.

I have a bit of a buttonhole sewing session and then photography session the other week. This was done apart from the buttonholes at the start of lockdown, but as I had a few projects to sew buttonholes on I used the one-step buttonhole function on my Janome. I was a little concerned that the fabric would be too thick for the machine, but it handled it well. One buttonhole went a little awry, so the stitch unpick got a bit of use and it was not easy undoing stitches on this fabric.

Overall I'm very pleased with the effect and I like the waistcoat. I can't see it getting much wear at the moment though. as even when I'm at work we are dressing casually and it will be too warm to wear soon. Wearing will have to wait until the autumn I feel. It has a long line and I think it will look great with long dresses. It does emphasise my long torso and It might have been a good idea to make it a little shorter.