Little boy vest

I had one of those moments recently where it seems like you turn around one day and suddenly one child has ankles and wrists exposed and tummies of jackets and vests stretched to the max! With 3 kids there's always someone needing something bigger and this time it was my boy's turn.

This vest that I made him doesn't address the chilly wrists (I've got a t-shirt in the works), but it does add a nice warm layer to his chest without adding the bulk of sleeves, making movement for play a lot easier.


Of course it's almost impossible to get a stationary pic of an almost 2 year old! There are teddies to play with and cuddle, afterall!

I traced a pattern for the basic shape using an existing sleeveless zip-up hooded jacket and kept it simple in shape. He has quite a few hooded t-shirts, so to avoid the double (or tripling!) of hood bulkiness I omitted it from this design. And as I didn't have a zip the right size thought I'd go for a simple button closure.



All the fabric is from my stash, and the grey woolly looking fabric is a little scratchy on the back so I lined it (using the same pattern pieces) in a soft jersey knit. Then I encased the edges with some bias binding made from a contrasting knit and added the elastic and button closure.

I'm really happy with how this little experiment worked out and now that I have the basic shape I'm thinking I could do lots of variations - add pockets, hood, maybe sleeves, a zip or popper front, reversible etc. Ahh, such a satisfying project. It's lovely when something works out well... unlike the t-shirt I made recently that made him cry it was so hard to get off his head (bad mummy!) and the sleeves were half way up to his elbows (doh!) - ah well, back to the drawing board on that one ;-)