Thanks to AJ, I now have found out that in old tailoring shops, it’s common for an apprentice to get the hang of the vest before moving on to a jacket. That’s great since there are two I want to make this summer (with matching bottoms too).

My first seersucker garment was this BWOF 5-2007-104 (reviewed here) jacket last summer. While I love the jacket, it’s floppy and pretty casual. I tried on some J. Crew seersucker last season and found that they were very structured and loverrly. In an effort to step up my efforts on the BWOF 2-2007-116 vest, I’m incorporating some tailoring elements.

Silk organza interlining on the left, vest front seersucker hand basted to interlining

Rather than interfacing the entire garment, I’m going to underline it with silk organza. That’s because I don’t want to lose any of the seersuckerness of the fabric with fusing. The front organza is cut on the bias so that it will hug the body (SB, PowerSewing). I was going to do a cotton batiste, but the organza gave a crisper feel.

The lining is this pink Ambiance I got from G Street last fall.
I’m using fusible black sheer knit interfacing for the collar and facing on the underlining instead of the fashion fabric. I’m not attaching it to the seersucker because I don’t want to loose the seersuckerness of it all.

So everything is now cut out, I’m half way through the basting of interlining. This weekend should be some serious construction.

The only things I am not sure if I should do:

Do I still need to stabilize the underarm curve since I have underlining? If so, do I apply it to the fashion fabric or to the silk organza?

Also, I’d like to use twill to stabilize the roll of the collar. But, I need to get a little more familiar with the construction of this before I commit 🙂