Oliver + S Art Museum Vest

Oh my, how cute is this! This is the Art Museum Vest by Oliver + S on little Lion, who is 4.5 months old.

My family had a wedding to go to, and of course I was making a dress for myself. But what to dress the kids in? In browsing for a dress pattern for my daughter, I came across the Art Museum Vest and was instantly taken.

It was a surprisingly easy make! I had it mostly done in one late night of sewing after the kids went to bed. Probably about 4-6 hours. I had the perfect fabrics in my stash already... this gorgeous stripe by Michael Miller, along with a scrap of silver silk charmeuse for the back. The inside is a fun insect print on gray. The metal buttons were also in my stash, I can't recall what I originally purchased them for. The vest is very cleverly constructed... the seams are all enclosed with only a tiny bit of hand stitching. Brilliant!

I skipped the belt in the back, but I totally did the welt pockets, how cute! I made a lame attempt at pattern matching... totally didn't work, but I think I know how I need to do it next time. Since I had a whole sewing agenda to finish before the wedding, I didn't redo them.

I had thoughts of making it reversible, but I didn't have time to solve the problem of reversible closures. Magnets might work-- does anyone know where to get those cute sew-on magnets that I see elsewhere in people's makes? I actually love the buttons on this one, but perhaps for a future version.

And aren't those buttonholes beautiful? Another thing to love about my new Janome. I did buttonholes for the first time under time with this machine under time pressure (those precious 10 minute gaps between taking care of baby needs) and it was amazingly easy-- just put a button in the automatic buttonholer and off it went, no measuring necessary. I did have a small panic moment at the beginning when the machine started then stopped with an error, but I pulled out the manual and quickly educated myself on the buttonhole lever that I had to attach to the foot. After that they went smoothly.

The matching bowtie was a total afterthought... I whipped that up on the morning before we left. Tutorials here and here. It adds such a nice touch!

The pants are the Big Butt Pants by Made by Rae, in natural linen. Also a super quick make, since I've made several before and know the pattern fits him. If I had more time I would have made the pants that are part of the Oliver + S pattern, but that would have required fitting a whole new pants pattern and I wasn't up for that right now.

The shirt was a fabulous find at our local used children's store, Mama Goose. How lucky am I to have gone out the day before the wedding, and found the perfect white button down shirt/onesie! Mama Goose is a pretty awesome store, but I don't always have such success. I didn't even know shirt/onesie things existed. It is made by Carter's, but the local Kohls who carries Carter's didn't have anything of the sort.

It is so much fun dressing up a little boy!