Quilted Vest Progress - Bias Tape Detour and More Quilting

Today I got some more quilting done on the vest, I finished one of the front panels and almost completed the other one. I'm missing some of the vertical stitching towards the top/neck area, but I'll be able to finish that pretty quickly when I next sew.


The top portion of one panel of a quilted vest, some vertical stitching is missing towards the top but it's otherwise nearly ready for assembly. The vest is purple and the stitching is white/gold.

The thing that occupied most of my time was a detour to make custom bias tape for when I eventually complete this vest and need double-fold bias tape to finish the edges. Because it's quilted from three layers of fabric, if the edges were folded over for a standard hem the fabric would be too thick and it would lose too much fabric to the hem. Instead, putting bias tape over the edges keeps it relatively thin while still keeping the edges from raveling. Once I created it, I wound the bias tape onto a spool to keep things organized (and preserve the folds until I can use it). The tape is temporarily on a spool which still has thread on it, but I'm planning to use most of it so that's not a big deal. When I can I'll transfer any leftover tape to an empty spool or just wind it around itself, whichever works better. 

A pile of double-fold bias tape made from a marbled purple/white/black fabric. There are pins holding the folds of the bias tape in place.Two spools of bias tape wrapped around spools which normally hold thread. The larger spool has purple/white/black bias tape, the smaller spool has dark blue tape.

A spool of purple/white/black bias tape rests on top of a purple panel (one edge flipped up to show the cream underside). The panel is quilted with white/gold thread.



 

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