Vintage Family Circle Simplicity pattern (1981)

A bit of history before I get into the new vest.

I remember buying this magazine and beginning to make this vest for a Christmas vest back in 81.  Very newly married, barely in my 20's and new to more advanced sewing techniques, like quilting and sandwiching, beading, etc.  

 I was able to trace and cut out my size, purchase th beads, but ask my older sister to help with the beading.  I finished the vest and ask her tell me how to sew it up and turn it right side out.  She did.  I wore it with a cream turtleneck from LL Bean that year.  I loved sewing and I loved the vest.  She ask to borrow it to show to a friend, and I never saw the vest again.

This pattern I come across in my pattern stash  have always thought I would remake it again over the years.  This Christmas was the year.  The fabric had been in my fabric stash for a very long time.  I bought the 2 bolts during the Walmart fabric close out one year. 

 The beads are from a bead collage my son did for a college art class.  He did Roland Orzabal in beads.  We framed it.  Really a good Roland bead likeness.  The bells I was planning to put on a tree skirt I made in the same fabric a few years ago but didn't use them.

 Green rick rack on the pockets.  I quilted through the out fabric and the batting.  I sewed the beads and bells through the top fabric and the batting.  I sewed the 2 layers together at the outer edges like a seam allowance.

 I had thought to add in some more beading, or rick rack or applique, really smother it in Ellie Mae Clampett needlework, but left it relatively plain in the end.

Inside out.  This was a fun project and I wore it with a cream turtleneck and it just took me back in time.  Silly, but I am so glad I did this.

Now..where have I been.  Well in 2016, I was driving 3 kids all over the metroplex to work and school and other places, and I never got a chance to do any sewing.  Maybe some small projects or projects broken up over time.  I was exhausted and using a computer I was not familiar with and just put everything to the side.  In January 2017, I was planning on coming back, but I got sick and whether it was the flue or bronchitis, it was severe, and lasted into March.  I really should have gone in, I was emergency room sick or doctor's office sick, maybe even hospital sick, but I didn't.

Then I got very weak, like I had been in bed and didn't have any strength weakness.  I thought that would be my life after that.  I really did.  In the middle of summer 2017, I began to feel better and get stronger.  So far this year, I haven't gotten sick.  So I'm hoping to get back into blogging, figure out what happens to my pictures when I transfer them over from my camera, and maybe change my blog around to update it here and there.