By the time it came to start on the HSF challenge 15, The great Outdoors, I was pretty drain sewing wise. I knew that if I was going to compleat this year of cahllenges I needed to give myself a break and make something simple once in a while.

So I decided to make something I’ve been thinking about for a while – a regency spencer.
But then I realised that I only had scraps left of lovely brown coton vevet I’ve wanted to use. and I did like the idae of buying even more fabric.
So I re-calculated and decided to make a sleveless spencer instead. And while I was at it why not turn it in to a west compleatly.

I used the Simplicity 4055 as a guide to get the overal line right, since I wanted the west to go over the yellow dress I made from the same pattern.I made some changes, like added a dart and re-shaped the back.

Then I cut it, made a mock-up and tried it on.

It fit pretty well, but I didn’t really like the high neckline.

So I marked the new neckline and cut.

Ok, so it looks pretty stupid in these pictures but I like the tought of the lower necline and the dress showing.

When the pattern was fitted properly, I started to cut the fabrics – velvet, cotton lining and cotton twill for interlining.

I stiched the back seams and basted the shoulder and side seams together.

A first version to try on.

It fit perfectly, even though the new lower neckline didnt really show due to the seam allowence.

I didn’t like the bust darts though, so I marked hem for shortening.

I toyed with the idea of skipping the dart and gather the bust instead. But decided it looked to bulky on the velvet. So I restiched the darts instead.

Then I putt in the lining, fideling a bit on the arm holes.The last piece to attach was the waistband, which I stiched to the lower edge.

I made one edge of the wasiband longer to make a cross over clouser.

Before turning the west right side out, I made sure to notch all the curved seams to make everything lay nice and flat. 

I used a regular bath towel when iron the velvet as to not crush the pile.

Lastly I attached some buttons and the hooks and eyes for the clouser.

The finished piece (paired with my yellow regency gown):

Just the facts:

Challenge: 15, The great Outdoors.

What: a regency spencer/west

Pattern: I used Simplicity 4055 as a guide, but re-shaped it quite a bit..

Fabric: 0,4 m of brown cotton velvet and 0,4 m brown cotton for lining (both scraps left over from previous projects) and 0,4 m of cotton twill for interlining.

Notions: Thread, two buttons, 5 hooks and eyes.

How historical accurate: not much I fear – even though it is compleatly hand sewed. I havn’t found any sources on this kind of wests.

Time: about 8 hours.

Cost: Basicly free since everything was leftovers from previous projects but if I would have bought it now it would probably be about 150 Sek (22 Usd).

First worn: For photos in the middle of august.

Final thoughts: I’m not happy with the bust. It looks rediculus and I have no idea how to fix it. Perhaps gathering will be my only alternative after all.