activation email

[Haelphia]

Duck cloth is super uncomfortable for me and I'm trying to make my first kit as comfortable as possible. I'm also a novice sewer and as it is sewing with more pliable fabrics irritate me so I can only imagine sewing w duck cloth won't be any better. Has anyone had any decent luck using a thicker linen for their flak vest?

[Rhue_Shofytt]

I've been kicking around the idea of using linen for that same reason. Most of the guidelines for vest fabric just says that it needs to be sturdy enough to not stretch under the weight of your plates. So, you could probably use linen as long as you double lined it, or used another sturdy fabric for the lining. You could also add an interfacing and quilt it to give it some extra oomph.

[Haelphia]

I've been kicking around the idea of using linen for that same reason. Most of the guidelines for vest fabric just says that it needs to be sturdy enough to not stretch under the weight of your plates. So, you could probably use linen as long as you double lined it, or used another sturdy fabric for the lining. You could also add an interfacing and quilt it to give it some extra oomph.

Yeah, I was planning on batting to start to see how that went, I just hear horror stories about making these vests so I have been putting it off, along with not knowing how the linen is going to turn out.

[jwith1994]

I've used duck cloth as an outer layer on mine, but I'm lining it with calico because it's a bit softer. I've only sewn a christmas stocking up to now, but I'm not having too much difficulty with the tougher fabric. I'm using interfacing AND batting to give it some more rigidity, and It's worked pretty well. I've just made fabric sandwiches for each of the panels, held each sandwich together with pegs, then just sewed the panel sandwiches together to form the vest. So long as you take it slow and think a couple of steps ahead when you sew, you shouldn't have a whole low of problems.

You might actually have better luck with stiffer fabric vs more pliable fabric. I've found more flexible fabrics tend to fold and flex in ways you don't want, but the duck cloth I've used has actually held it's shape a bit better as I run it through the machine.