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[Kel Toi]

Brill mate, bookmarked for future ref 

[Pointoforigin]

Zed, it depends - I usually make vests from leather and I can get two or three out of half a cow, or if you go with kid it's usually one skin for front and one for back. Of course this depends on the size of the person you're making it for.

I'd say if you were using standard width fabric (what 1.5m?) you probably want 2m to be on the safe side.


And I realised I glossed over your pervious question... while attachment is indeed up to you, I usually try to make a one piece front, one piece back, with the right side stitched and the left side zipped. So at the outside of the shoulder seam it's joined about 1-3cm, then zipped to the neck, and you use a zip which comes apart (the actual name escapes me now) down the left side under the arm.

If you wanted to do a center back zip that's very possible. I don't like them cos I like being able to get into my vest by myself.

If you wanted to replace zips with velcro that's also possible, just remember to add extra seam allowance for the overlap. This pattern presumes that there's no overlap anywhere.


Here's a basic workflow of how I make a vest from this:

I grab the appropriate measurements from the person I'm sewing for and confirm that they want a fairly snug fit on a Boba length. I then take my pattern for my vest, lay over the top some tracing paper and adjust the new pattern appropriately. IE, if my chest is say 104 and my client's is 96, I'll work that out to take off 8cm on the chest line. So on each half of front and back pattern 2cm would come off.
Repeat that process with each measurement until you have a new pattern.
Note: if I have a 104 chest, the total chest measurement in the pattern will likely be around 110-115. This is called "ease" and is what allows you to actually move The vest will still be fairly snug with one 5-10cm of ease, if you wanted it looser you'd go with 10-15 even all the way up to 20. You don't add ease for length measurements however - neck to chest, neck to waist, will remain the same.

I take the new pattern and take my leather. I use TAPE to hold the pattern to the leather, not pins! Unlike woven fabric, leather does NOT repair any holes you poke in it and these could potentially become stress points.
I'll fold over the leather and place the pattern's centerline along the fold, so when I cut I know I'm making a symmetrical piece.
I make sure to cut with seam allowance - I eyeball it, but it's around 1cm usually. Seam allowance is the extra space around the lines of your pattern that mean you can hem the edges (fold them over and make them look neat) and join things properly.

After front and back are cut, I'll start sewing. First thing to sew is the darts on the front panel. Again I use tape to hold the fold in place while I sew. I sew right through the tape, then carefully rip it out from under the stitches. Be careful - if you had planned a 3cm dart, this does not mean there's 3cm of material in the fold! That would make a 6cm dart and then your waistline would not fit. A 3 cm dart means 1.5cm folded over.
Then I'll join the back and the front together along the right side only, remembering to sew inside out when joining seams! The "good" sides should be touching each other. So the shoulder seam and the side seam are sewed.
Then I'll grab my shoulder bells (if the vest has them) and hem all the edges except the edge which attaches to the vest. If you hem correctly with leather you can give it a pseudo piping look a la Jango.
I'll then attach the right shoulder bell to the right shoulder. The shoulder seam should serve as a location point for the exact middle of your shoulder bell top edge. Again, good sides together!
Next I'll hem the bottom, all the way around from the left side on the front to the left side on the back. Then I'll hem the right armhole. Yes, after the shoulder bell is attached. This serves the purpose of hiding the stitching of the join and only making the pseudo piped look visible. It's neat.
My next step is to add zips. It doesn't matter if you add the side zip or the shoulder zip first.
Zips are annoying and tricky. As always, good sides go together.
For the side zip, line up the split connector thingomo (which is totally its name now guys) you know the metal bit at the end of the zip? with the bottom edge of the vest. The outside edge of the zip should be on the same line as the outside edge of the vest, and it should be zip side down on the leather. Sew it on. Your zip will probably be heaps too long and that's OK. You can trim it to the edge of the leather on the armhole side for length.
Same process for the other side of the zip, which may mean taking the zip apart to make it easier.
Next comes the tricky bit. NOW we hem this edge, with the zip in place. You want to fold over the leather until it almost completely covers the teeth of the zip, then sew it down. This will serve the purpose of hiding the zip (important for CRL's) but not make it hard to get to.
For the neck zip, the process is much the same except that you don't get to split the zip to make things easier. I start off by joining the shoulder seam as you did the other side - but only for 1-3cm! Not the whole way across! Then follow the previous instructions until you're ready to hem. I hem in one movement - a long U shape. Start at the neck of either the front or the back, sew down, sew across the bottom of the zip, sew back up, making sure that the leather is covering the zip teeth. Trim the zip.
Now we can hem the neck. Start at the zip on one side and go all the way around. You might like to pay attention to which way the seams fold, but it's not essential.
Then we can attach the last shoulder bell, just as we did before. And hem the armhole.
You'll notice that by hemming the armhole and neck you've folded over the ends of the zips - the zipper itself can't fall out! Tadahhh
And there you have it, one vest.

I realise this would be much easier with pictures. I shall do that for you all fairly soon.

[Pointoforigin]

RIGHT

Prepare to be assaulted with pictures.

I've been needing a new vest for some time and actually got the leather to make it a while ago. I used some lovely kid leather, as said above two skins were needed. There's always scrap bits of course and there MAY have been a tiny tiny vest made from the leftovers.

I shall dispense with the pattern making bit because that's been covered already. Beyond that all I did was take my pattern, lay it on my leather, tape it down (NOT pin, it's leather. Pins are fine for woven fabrics.) and cut it out.

Another note about leather - I use *fairly* thin stuff, and my sewing machine is fairly heavy duty. It's not an industrial machine but it does have a cast aluminium frame. I WOULD NOT sew even thin leather with a machine that had a plastic frame, as for example many Brother machines do. The machine would flex and potentially break.

Because I forgot the all important first step of having a cup of tea, there's a couple of mistakes in here, and I shall point them out. They aren't BAD at all and you probably won't notice until I do point them out, but they are kinda annoying to me. Lesson learnt - always start with a cup of tea!

I started with the shoulder bells.


Hemmed the edges. This is just folding the edge over and stitching it down. Note when sewing leather, I usually start sewing in the middle of a seam rather than at one end - leather likes to stick to the surface of the machine, so being able to pull it through is important.


Half of one done...


One fully done. See the back edge is NOT hemmed - this is where it attaches to the vest.


Both done. You can see the pseudo - piping look almost starting to develop. I'd have to sew closer to the edge to get it proper.


I grab the front piece and work out the darts. I start by folding the bottom edge over by the appropriate amount, 2cm in this case for a 4cm dart. I use tape to hold the dart in place while I sew and I sew straight over the tape.


Scotch tape is INFINITELY better for this than normal tape, but I didn't have any scotsmen around at the time.


When pulling the tape off, it tears along the stitching line fairly well. You get a little of this -


Loops created by pulling. They don't go away but that's OK. They're rather minor in the grand scheme of things. Scotch tape comes up easier which is why I prefer it.

Both darts done. The left dart is a bit better than the right.


Next I join the front and back pieces on the right side. It doesn't matter if you start with the shoulder or the side seam. Make sure that you put the "good" sides together and sew on the inside.


It's not that clear but here's both of those seams done


Then I hem the right sleeve hole... which was my biggest annoyance...


Looks perfect doesn't it?


Until we get to this point. Where I go, DAMN. I was meant to attach the shoulder bell BEFORE hemming the sleeve hole.


You can see the two lines of stitching. It would have been a whole lot neater if I had done it the other way, and you would have only seen one line. And this meant that I had to deliberately make the same mistake when I got to the other shoulder.

I hemmed the bottom as well, all the way around the front and back.


And now it's starting to look like a vest.

I started the zips. Firstly the side zip. Note the orientation - the "top" of the zip is face down on the good side of the leather, and it's on the inside not the outside. This shall make sense in a moment.


I took apart the zip to make my job easier


I changed the foot on the machine over to the zipper foot and sewed on one side


And once that was done, I folded over the leather so that it juuuust came to the edge of the teeth and sewed it down again


That's how you make it neat and hidden!

I trimmed the zip to length


Did the same things to the other part of the zip on the other piece of leather and voila! A hidden zip.


The shoulder zip is always trickier, because you can't separate it. I start by lining up the shoulder seam, good sides together...


And ONLY sew the outside 3cm or so.


Then comes the hard part, seating the zip. You can see here how it has to go - good side of leather against top side of zip - but on the inside of the garment - and ouch my head. It works though.


And attached, though you can't really tell with black thread on black zip


Next to hide the zip. I start at one end - the extra length of the zip allows me to pull the garment through rather than having to start in the middle and then go back and turn around


Get halfway, 90 degree turn, go across the end


Finish off the U shape with another 90 degree turn. Hidden zip.


I trimmed it to length


And hemmed the sleeve hole and neck hole. See how the hemming makes it so the zipper can't fall out?


At about this point I managed to bend my needle. Listen to your machine folks, you don't want broken needles flying into your eyes. Then you won't be able to read my build threads!


Aaaaaand done.


It fits quite well, of course. It'll be good to get some plates on this thing!

There you go folks, any questions please hit me up. I will do my best to answer!

[Kal Vizsla]

This is simply awesome! I do my vest as a test and almost reach your patterns very very similar. The only thing it was i dont know how i get there    yours have a diagram and measurements and is totally great!!
This will help a lot people here incluiding myself!!!
I'm going for a cup of tea to start making one 
Cheers!
A great tutorial here!!!!!!

[Zedrin Ho'dag]

Do you get your leather locally or on the internet?

[Pointoforigin]

Locally. I find it's better to be able to hold the piece in your hands before you buy it.

[Novoc Mereel]

This is great!  I'm about to start on mine, and this is super helpful!

[Tact Kor]

Thought I should post a photo of my completed vest here, thanks to Point for putting this Tute together, I did modify the front pleat a bit as I did not cut the "darts" and I put Boba style shoulders/sleeves.

Very happy with this;



Thanks again!

[Pointoforigin]

Excellent work my friend!

[Manbrolorian]

Vest making challenge accepted. Thanks for the awesome tutorial, Pointy!

[Milori Te'Bell]

Well Point, I just started my scrap vest, little bit of winging it, but when I got the needles in, it fit like a glove. Thank you for this guide.

[Pointoforigin]

Good to hear! Post pics!

[Milori Te'Bell]

As you wish.
Here is my friend Bob in his vest (vet visit destroyed the time for my own vest)


And the scrap one.

[Pointoforigin]

Excellent stuff!

[Milori Te'Bell]

The vest is as good as done. It's closed on the sides with these
But the neck is now a bit misformed. Advice here?