Caped vest

I like to wear vests in the winter…sometimes in the summer, too. It gives some booty coverage and lengthens out your profile. This is a pattern hack of the WBM Builder top. I used the longer length, created a different front neckline, added the front facing, armhole facings, added a cape and a band at the bottom.

This could easily be a cardigan hack with just keeping the arms on the WBM builder top.

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The fabric I used is a nice soft bamboo fleece from Nature’s Fabrics. It has a great structure for the neckline. I didn’t use any interfacing on it, since I knew it would hold up well, but it did stretch a bit more than I wanted. Interfacing it would keep the stretching down.

I did a facing on the armholes for a cleaner look. The neckline I cut at 3″ wide and the armhole facings were 2″ wide.

Construction was pretty straight-forward:

1. Hem the cape
2. Attach the front and back at the shoulders.
3. Sew up the side seams.
4. Sew the front and back facings together.
5. Sew the facings to the armholes, press and topstitch.
6. Place the cape around the neckline and staystitch.
7. Attach the band at the bottom.
8. Sew the facings together. Serge the raw edge of one side of the facings.
9. Sew one side of the facing only to the front, right sides together.
10. At the bottom, facings right sides together, sew as close to the band as possible. Flip out.
11. Press the seams inward, Sew the back side of the facing through the front next to the seam.

When I construct new patterns, I sometimes would do it differently the second time around. This went together pretty well, though. I also do a lot of ironing along the way, which helps with the topstitching and getting it all to lay flat.

I am wearing this with a dress/tunic that I made this fall. These fabrics are both from Nature’s Fabrics, so the colors match pretty well together.