Make a Flowy Vest Using a Directional Fabric
Directional fabrics are absolutely beautiful and lend themselves to any garment.
What do I mean by a directional fabric?
Directional fabrics contain a design or motif that shows one direction. For example - think of a floral arrangement. We want to make sure we lay a pattern piece on the fabric so the floral arrangement is right side up, not falling out of the vase - upside down. It's as simple as that.
Take a look at the image in the lower left of the Flowy Vest above. I used the Batik Rayon - Downton Border fabric to make my vest. This is a directional fabric. It doesn't contain a floral vase, but it does show a border that moves across the width of the fabric and not the length. Directional fabric simply means that we need to take care in positioning all pattern pieces in the same direction.
The image below is our Downton Border fabric with the back panel of the vest positioned on top.
The image below shows the hem line of the front panel positioned at the selvage edge of Downton Border fabric.
The next important step is placement of the border fabric on the garment. We want to make sure the design of the motif is positioned at the same place front and back of the garment. If I had made this garment with sleeves, I would also layout the sleeve pattern piece in the same manner.
Here is an image of how I positioned both front and back pattern pieces to ensure the motif is in the right place.
And a closeup of the armhole position. Once the layout is in place, I slide the pattern piece over keeping the alignment in place.
Once you work with a directional fabric like the border batiks we have in our collection you will love the look and the simplicity! Browse through our collection of border designs when you have a minute.
- Batik Rayon - Durum Dreams Border Design
- Batik Rayon - Downton Border Design
- And.... 115" Wide Batik Cotton Double Border
Have a fun time sewing your new Flowy Vest. It's simple and a great addition to any wardrobe!
Keep Sewing, Growing, and Sharing!!
Diane
