Turned taquete vest woven and sewn by Sharolene.
The pattern is from Daryl Lancaster (weaversew.com), the 800 vest (with zippered front) and the fabric is all cotton in turned taquete and was made in a Kathryn Weber workshop at Amazing Yarns in Redwood City about 4 years ago. The fabric is fairly heavy. I worked lots of hours to get the sizing right. I kept trying to make the hips bigger and for some reason, it wasn’t working. I made about 3 muslins and they always just met in the middle in front. Never did figure that one out. Then finally I just added fabric in the front an inch on each side and that seemed to do it.
It’s a very interesting construction for those of you who sew. You sew together the lining, iron well, then turn the inside to the outside. Then you lay the fabric pieces onto the lining (lining made from a sturdy fabric like linen or corduroy) and sew it. Something like applique. I learned so much in putting this together. Daryl is a genius. The instructions are complicated and encompassed 22+ pages. I didn’t make it perfectly, skipped some important steps but had enough sewing knowledge that I was able to punt and figure out a different way to do things.
One thing I learned is that when sewing with handwoven cotton or maybe even wool, it’s a very good idea to put on an iron-on interfacing. (There is some special knitted interfacing that is perfect for handwovens.) I thought of it at the time but thought the fabric seemed very stable. But as I worked with it, I could see that over time, the fabric could sag from it’s own weight. Too late for this one, so I sewed vertical invisible lines every 3 or 4 inches around the bottom section all around. That seemed to stabilize it.
