Vogue 8048 - the Old Folk Edition

My Dad is fondly known as 'the Old Folk', and when he saw Mr. SDSC's waistcoats, he wanted one for himself.  As you may well know - once I have a pattern that works, I like to churn out a number of versions.  This does not relate just to me, but also to Mr. SDSC - and now the Old Folk.

Fortunately, the waistcoat pattern fitted him well, so I did not have to make any changes.  I used a lovely, soft, brushed wool suiting in a dark charcoal colour - left over from some trousers I made myself quite some time ago.

He has quite the sense of humour, so I thought that I would use a bright colour for the lining.  And being a lifelong Liverpool FC fan, the lining had to be red.  I dug around in my linings and found a length from my Mum's collection.  She would have bought this to line a skirt - she used to make lots of perfectly fitted pencil skirts, usually in a tartan fabric (well, she was Scottish!), so I knew that the Old Folk would get a kick out of wearing some of her fabric.

So without further ado - I give you the Old Folk - posing for all he is worth on the deck, with the snow falling, as it was the only place with semi-decent light:

Suits you Sir, suits you!

I lined the pockets with Batman fabric again, and that is about it.  One happy Old Folk and you can't argue with that!

Vogue 8048 - Men's Waistcoats: Part II

I wanted to post a few details about the waistcoats - mostly because I use my blog as a notebook and reminder of what I have knitted or sewn, and also because you may be interested!  The original post is here.

The pattern itself is very simple, just five main pieces, and the pockets.  So you would think that I wouldn't be able to mess that up.  And you would be wrong!!!  But more on that later!

Pockets:

This is the first jacket and the fabric is a suiting weight cotton - lovely fabric.  I have made one pair of pants for myself out of them and will be . . . . oh yes, pockets!  I followed the Vogue instructions for the double welt pockets.  I marked, tailor tacked, chalked and sewing with absolute precision - you can see the 'dog's dinner' that resulted in these next pics.  What a bummer.  Mr. SDSC couldn't see the problem (bless him, he is a keeper), so I just determined to try a different method for the next versions.

I used this tutorial for single welt pockets.  I am happier with the results although they are not perfect.  If you have an 'idiot proof' way of doing welts, I am all ears!  Please let me know!

I've also made myself a skirt and a pair of trousers out of this houndstooth!  Sadly it is all gone now.  It drapes beautifully so I was sorry to see it go.

Oops. This last photo is a bit wobbly!  The fabric here is black denim.  A dream to sew with.

Oh, and I finished off with some fun fabric on the pocket lining that is back to back with the front of the waistcoat.  The pocket lining that you can just see above the welt, is the fashion fabric as it is likely that that would show.  And it does.

Back Ties

To me, the back ties are part and parcel of a man's waistcoat, and the pattern has you sew them into the side seam, then sew them down onto the back piece about 3" in from the side seam.  Like this:

There was just too much 'hanging down' for me, and the tie itself was also stretched to it's limit, so for the next two versions I shortened the ties and attached them in the back darts.  I checked a couple of other patterns and that was what they did.  If it was good enough for them - it was good enough for me!

Lining

The lining consists of a back piece, the front facing which is interfaced and cut from the fashion fabric, and the front side piece which is cut from the lining fabric.  It is all 'bagged' and sewn together with a gap left in one of the side lining seams, and then edge and top-stitched to within an inch of it's life:

Except that with the houndstooth I cut the front side panel (seen above as the black lining) out of the houndstooth fabric.  Doh!  I didn't have any more houndstooth, so for that version the lining is edge to edge, and appears to work well.  The interfacing had to be adhered to the front piece of the waistcoast rather than the facing, but it does not appear to have caused any issues.

Buttons and Label

There is nothing much to say about the buttons, just plain black ones.  As far as the buttonholes were concerned, my Pfaff let me down again - I don't know what the problem is with the automatic buttonholer, I just cannot get consistent buttonholes with it, so I resorted to my Singer Featherweight and the buttonholer (from the 50's/60's) attachment and it produced fabulous buttonholes.  These are 5/8" buttons and holes, but I'll probably make the holes larger next time, as Mr. SDSC is losing some dexterity in his fingers :(

Nothing else left to do other than sew on one of my labels 'Private Collection by twotoast' that I get a real kick out of using!

Phew, that was quite a lot of info - anymore top tips' for waistcoats?

Vogue 8048 - Men's Waistcoats

It is not very often that Mr. SDSC asks me to make anything for him.  I've knitted him some socks, a few shirts and a dressing gown, but that's about it.  So when he asked for a waistcoat - I was happy to oblige.  The search for a pattern was very brief - there really isn't much around for men, and even less for waistcoats - and the winner was Vogue 8048, that I happen to have in stock!

Source

I chose view A, (diagonal print, top right of photo above), as I liked the higher cut neckline.  I didn't want it to end up looking like a 1970's polyester suit reject!

So are some pics - the first one was made from a great suiting weight cotton that has narrow grey stripes:

 

Photos are a pic of a problem at this time of the year - there is usually about 12" of snow on the ground, but we are having an unusually mild start to the winter, so I dragged Mr. SDSC outside ans asked him to pose!  Look at the gorgeous blue sky!

The fit was acceptable - I probably could fiddle around and adjust the shoulders, and maybe take some width out of the back, but Mr. SDSC says that it is comfortable, so that is that!

The pockets are a double welt, and I made rather a pig's ear of them.  There are two issues - I didn't clip far enough into the corners before turning the facing, and I was not accurate enough with the actual welts themselves.  Fortunately, the fabric is dark enough that you can't see . . . . but I made changes in the next versions!

This time the pockets have a single welt and look muuuuuuuuch better!

This hounds-tooth fabric is gorgeous, and I used it to make this skirt, and these trousers.  I had just enough left over for the waistcoat above, that is being worn with a shirt I made last year.

I finished off with some black denim.  Lovely!  He loves his 'bespoke' waistcoats, and when my Dad came round for his Sunday dinner today, he tried one on and it fits pretty good, so I will make one for him too!

I did take a few details pics and have some more info to share with you about these waistcoats, and I'll drop them in another post later in the week.  Before I go though, a quick 'out take' - the boys wanted to get in on the act!

More details on PatternReview.