Christmas waistcoat

I work in several residential aged care facilities and Christmas is a big deal. Increasingly staff are encouraged to wear silly or crazy Christmas themed T-shirts throughout December. A variation on the ugly Christmas sweater idea, but for hot climates.

I can’t bring myself to do that. Christmas tshirts are cheap and nasty. I thought about making my own – but – no.  Instead I made a Christmas waistcoat. I can wear normal clothes and be Christmassy when needed. After all – while I celebrate Christmas, not all my clients do.

 

 

The fabric came from Spotlight. It is really difficult to get fabric that reflects a hot Australian Christmas. I think this fabric was released in 2019. I love the Australian animals in the print. So much that I bought enough fabric to make a reversible waistcoat. Koalas on one side.

Echidna’s on the other side. The pattern was from Bootstrap Patterns and ostensibly to my measurements. It came with facings, lining and little pocket patterns. I just wanted the front and back pieces. There was a centre back seam but it was straight so I left it out. Pattern matching this across a seam?  No way!

 

 

 

There are side bust darts. There should have been waist bust darts too but I didn’t want the waistcoat to be that fitted. I wanted it to fit loosely over my usual work clothes. It is certainly loose! I put in a “You can’t buy this” label. I ignored the Bootstrap instructions as I wasn’t using all their pieces. Instead I used the instructions from the Thread Theory Belvedere waistcoat.

 

I didn’t spend a lot of time on making this. So little that I forgot to topstitch the armholes. I neglected buttons and buttonholes too. This is not a waistcoat that needs to be done up!

 

The waistcoat was in constant use throughout December, and garnered many compliments.

It has since been washed, armhole top stitching completed and stored for December 2020.

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