This version exclusively for Confessions of a Jackaholic. Do not copy and paste elsewhere.
I was in a hurry and did not spend as much time researching the waistcoat as I would have liked, and I'm not very proud of the one I made. I just had so many problems (due to my ignorance) with it, that I'm not too fond of it--it's a seamstress thing :) But hopefully my experience and experiments with it might be of a wee bit of help to others, so here goes.....
For the front, I used a linen-weave cotton that was originally a medium denim blue color. It turned out to be a little too flimsy. Those Silversmith buttons are real heavy and they pulled down on the upper edge of the waistcoat. I had to take off the buttons, open the front edge and put in some interfacing to sturdy it up a bit. Would recommend some lightweight interfacing on the button and buttonhole edges anyway whatever fabric you choose. If I were starting over making another waistcoat, I'd choose some kind of heavy linen.
For the color, if you can't find that aubergine color, then get something light preferably not any darker than a medium blue, and dye it. Adding color is much easier than trying to take away color, especially taking away color then adding more/different color--big hassle. So stay away from dark and bright colors.
I bought two bottles of rit dye, one purple, one navy blue and mixed up batches and test dyed strips. I started with 1 part purple, 1 part blue (teaspoon full, or cap full for 'part' is close enough and mix it with about 6 parts water--you don't need much for a little index card sized sample.......). Then a new batch of 2 parts purple, 1 part blue, then another new batch of 3 parts purple, 1 part blue. I added more purple to the batches because that aubergine color is more purple than it is blue but I didn't know just how much more purple. I dyed (same amount of time in the dye bath for each sample) and dried samples till I got one I was satisfied with, which turned out to be the 3 parts purple, 1 part blue on the particular fabric I used.
http://www.leenas.com/English/sew_general.html
near the bottom of the page, look for the section titled Pocket with flap.
I cut the pocket bag and lining both out of the same material I used to line the vest. I cut it much bigger than it needed to be. After I stitched them onto the vest, I pressed them down and trimmed it to be about 1 inch wider than the pocket opening toward the center front of the waistcoat, about 1/2 inch shorter than the bottom finished edge, and sewed the side of the pocket lining that's toward the side seam into the side seam.
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Trim the seam allowance, turn right side out through opening. Slip stitch opening closed.
Below are sketches French Ghost posted of the first mods he made to the Simplicity #4923 vest pattern. These are essentially the same mods I made, (or tried to make on my already cut out material).
I had planned to do the regular hand stitched buttonholes, tailor buttonholes, on the vest but I ran out of time to do that. I had no choice but to do them with the sewing machine.Well, the vest buttonhole is about 3 inches long and my buttonhole attachment is only 1 1/2 inches.
Okay, a sewing machine buttonhole is just satin stitches, very close zig zag stitch, the little attachment just makes it easier to do. So I marked the 3 inch buttonhole and tried to satin stitch down one side and turn it around and stitch the other side. I could not get the stitching to stay straight over this much distance. The center got all wavey and ugly.
My sewing machine has double needle sewing. So I used a 3.0 double needle (the 3.0 is how many millimeters apart the needles are) and set the machine to the maximum zig zag width I could use with a double needle, and satin stitched down the length of the buttonhole. Not the most beautiful buttonhole I ever saw. No keyhole at the front and it is rather skinny, but it was all I had time to do with them. My fabric was kind of thin, so I used a stabilizer to keep the stitching flat and even.
I didn't get a close up enough picture of the buttonholes on the front of the vest, but maybe you can see here how it looked on the pocket flap.
I don't recall the amount of the spacing for the buttons and buttonholes. It would vary by your height anyway. So find where you want to put the top button, and find where you want to put the bottom button. Measure that distance, divide by 11 (the number of SPACES down the front) and make the center of the buttons and buttonholes that far apart. On the pocket flaps, maybe 1/2 inch or a little more from the edge and one down the middle.
by the stunt double for the roguish Captain Jack Sparrow during the
production of Walt Disney Pictures' thrilling high-seas adventure tale
"Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl." Original
costumer's tags attached to various items identify them as costume pieces
created for the stuntman. Included here are:
* woven blue-gray eight-button jacket with flared, pleated tails and oversize slit cuffs
* distressed 12-button aubergine linen vest
* oversize, open-necked cream linen shirt with billowing sleeves
* faded brown cotton button-fly pants with buttoned, buckled cuffs
* distressed brown leather belt with oversize antique-finished buckle
* distressed brown suede knee-high boots with 10-inch cuffs
* cream-colored sash with red stripes
* fingerless medium brown glove with wrist strips
* frayed black rag with striped accents
There is an interesting set of pictures on flickr with many variations of the color Aubergine