Practices: Plastic Pocket | Fake Blood Protective Lining | Welt Pocket

Style/Era: ~1940s

A draped pattern passed off to me to construct after mockup fittings. The goal was to create two identical single breasted vests with a plastic lining and one of the vests to contain plastic pockets for a fake blood packet. Having familiarity working on vest construction, I felt prepared to create two identical garments which I began by simply transferring the pattern to the fashion fabric twice before ever cutting. The fashion fabric was very prone to stretching oddly from past experience with the fabric, so I stay-stitched the fashion pieces ahead of time to ensure ease later in the construction. The darts on the fashion fabric felt like they would be more challenging, but by utilizing a couple more pins the darts were easy to stitch in. The finishing touches were non-fake blood packet vest needed some painted blood for a quick change. buckles in the back, and fake welt pockets in the front of the vests.

Points in which I was challenged:

• Pinning and stitching together the neck of the vest due to connecting fashion fabric across back.

  • A lot of pins and turning at the machine doubled with a little hand stitching allowed it to lay flat.

• Stitching in the inner plastic pockets; unfamiliarity with stitching actual plastic.

  • Going slowly in the sewing machine with a small needle was the best strategy.