How to make a waistcoat step by step book on video

I was planning on putting up pictures of the book on made on making my waistcoat but couldnt be arsed so just made a silent video instead. Half way through my housemate comes in and says fuckin hell cause its lovely outside and I'm sitting in. Apart from that nothing else happens.

Wrecked

That tiredness I was talking about towards the end of last term was evident when I got my folders back this week. I was so knackered I couldnt even concentrate long enough to write a single word when I was writing my headings and went dyslexic for the day. All my pieces were on A3 card that took time I didnt have to cut out so when I made a mistake I just had to work around it. It started to get pretty frustrating.

Example of well written heading:

Not too well centred, S is a bit crazy:

Here I forgot that I had the zip sample on the other side and this was meant to be the sample with the vent, so I pointed an arrow to where the zip sample is:

Curved dart:

The R was an I and the A was an R:

E was an A and the K was a H

Waistcoat 2

Then I had 5 days to make another waistcoat to wear to a wedding. But this time I had to use my own measurements and make my own pattern.

You take some of these measurements:

And use these instructions:

Put it all together and it should fit like a glove.

I bought some fabric from Hardwick Textiles at Upton Park station. Pretty cheap and no bartering so less chance of getting massively ripped off.

Only problem was I was completely drained from the last couple of weeks of college and Brian was over for a couple of days so I had to go out Friday night and Saturday day. So then I had 3 and a half days to make something that took me 5 weeks the last time. I literally raced through it. Anytime I cut something I wasnt supposed to cut or stitched something badly or the sewing machine was too tight I just had to move on and forget about it.

Definitely had no time for buttonholes on this one but it turned out I wouldn't need any because the waistcoat turned out a little bit on the small side. I think this is the first time anything has ever been too small for me so I kind of felt like Aladdin or even Pinocchio when I first tried it on. But I don't know, when I put on my slacks and a crisp new shirt and I was out in the Portuguese sun it did look kind of cool. I prefer to think I pulled off the (slightly creased) Han Solo look quite well.

It's the thought that counts

As well as being up against it trying to finish the waistcoat I decided to cheap out and make a wedding gift. I had a bit of practice binding books, making 4 so far so a wedding photo album wouldnt be beyond my capabilities. I was just going to bind it the same as the last ones but then I realised if you put photos in there afterwards then it would bulk out on one side. So I had to make the spine of the book twice as thick as where it opens. Took a bit of researching in shops and a while on the drawing board at home before the penny dropped on this one but I got there in the end.

Watched a few more youtube videos on book binding and I was close to binding the book in leather (I even bought some leather on brick lane but it was a bit smelly) but stuck with card and loosely followed a video by some guy who had this genius idea of having a little sunken rectangle in the front so the lovely couple could put a photo in there. I used this Indian cotton paper to put the photos on and then had some Japanese fancy version of wax paper to protect each photo. Add some ribbon, bind it with thread in a rush and it all comes together to make a very old rustic (but still classy) looking photo album. Only have a photo of the front but rest assured its pretty good on the inside (there's meant to be big bucks in bespoke wedding gifts so I cant give away all my secrets.)

With all the figuring out how to make the photo album and then making it, finishing my waistcoat, packing (which I always leave to the very last second), going to the excel centre for a training day only to get the day wrong, going to my hairdresser only to find it closed down, and relying on a bus to get to the airport, I got to thinking for the first time ever that I might have left it a bit late to catch my flight. Turns out I left it a little late, but if the bus had of turned up on time or even half an hour late I would have made it. So the wedding album turned out to be quite the expensive gift after all, and a standard flight to Faro turned into this: