Finally, the last of the 2022 garments!  I finished sewing the buttons onto this vest just before we called the taxi to take us to the airport in December, and she wore it on the plane!

Stella had been asking for a vest for a while, and she’d tried on a few in the shops but they were always way too big for her frame. Luckily for me Style Arc had recently released a pattern for the Joy Woven Vest.

One of the joys (see what I did there) of Style Arc patterns is the size range. The vest started at size 4, and that’s what I used. As it turns out, it’s on the small side! From the Style Arc website:
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Faux welt pockets at front
Princess line
Button opening, 4 x buttons
Cut away at centre back
Easy fit
Fully lined
FABRIC SUGGESTION
Woven fabric including linen, cotton.

Stella was really hoping that this would be done in time to take away, so I just sewed it up straight out of the pattern without making a toile or individual fit adjustments. So it’s not a perfect fit, but it’s way better than anything she’d tried in the shops. She wanted to be able to wear it both as a top on it’s own and layered over a shirt.

Here she’s styled it over a Uniqlo shirt and op shopped jeans (low waisted and wide legged). She’s worn it with a few different outfits since this.

The fabric is another holiday souvenir – a hand-woven sarong length from Thailand. This is a fully lined vest and I just used the same fabric to line it, figuring that the cotton would be comfortable against the skin if she was wearing it without something underneath.

The metal buttons used for the closure were from stash. Stella has asked for another vest, and I have a length from my visit to Stonemountain and Daughter with Sue that is earmarked for it. I will go up a size next time though and sew the 6.