I think it may have been Anna who first alerted me to this pattern.  Figgy’s Lux Vest is for kids.  It’s a simple one piece pattern for a vest made in whatever fake fur you are able to lay your hands on.

I sewed the largest size for Clare, which is the 8/9. My tips for this pattern? Print the pattern pieces twice so that you can tape them together to have one big flat pattern piece. You really don’t want to be cutting fake fur on the fold.

The fur was from Spotlight, and the lining from stash. I left off the closure. The fur is sewn to the lining by machine right sides together, leaving the shoulder seams open and a gap at the centre back hemline for turning.  Then the shoulder seams are sewn together, and then hand sewing done to close the gaps at centre back and near the shoulder seams.  That’s it!  You do need to take it slowly and push the fur out of the way as you go, but that takes patience rather than technique and the finished result is terrific.

And now I insert the obligatory “oh I just can’t take decent photos at the moment the days are so short and the weather so dismal and my phone is fuzzy” sentence. But you can still get the general idea.

This really is a fun project.  It does leave a huge amount of fluff around the sewing room, but that isn’t hard to fix.  The instructions are comprehensive, and I think that most people could sew this successfully.  Now I want one in my size.  Time to start browsing the pattern catalogues…