Changing External Lines

External lines provide the silhouette of a garment. A vest is used in this video because every external line of the PGM Master Pattern will be changed. The same procedure for creating a vest can be used for either women's or men's vests. When creating a new design in can be valuable to do some research to see how similar garments have been created. This can be useful for finding design detail that could otherwise be missed. Images for vests show a lot of variations with many that are very loose fitting. This example has been chosen as a starting point for the design because it is fitted and incorporates a belt.

Bespoke vs. RTW
The design of a vest will be quite different for Bespoke or RTW. For Bespoke the fitted quality of the vest can be achieved by following the shape of the Master Pattern closely including the location of the belt housing. The front and back of the vest can be made of the same fabric.

For RTW the Size Charts indicate a 4" range for the length of Center Back. This means the belt placement will be too high for some women and too low for others. The shape of the Side Seam for an hour glass look is also compromised. This indicates the belt housing should not be included so the belt as a separate element will fall at the location of the natural waist.

The belt to create a fitted look offers an interesting choice for vests. Men's vests meant to be worn with three-piece suits use different fabric for the front and back. For examle a wool front might have a lighter weight satin for the back. This suggests the front can be more fitted while the back is less fitted with the belt creating the fitted look. This is the approach that these two videos will follow with one for the front and one for the back.

Caveat -- For a man's vest that is worn without a jacket this could be considered a poor styling choice. For women's vests the design choice does not have this same limitation.

Vest Front

The vest front will include a button overlap. A conventional button overlap can be either the width of the button or 3/4" (.75) whichever is larger. A 3/4" overlap when reduced to quarter scale is 0.1875".