Complete novice question about one of your videos

[the_professors_assistantKeymaster]

I am completely new to sewing (only bought a sewing machine a couple of weeks ago).

As an initial project I thought I would try something challenging but not too complicated – a man’s Vest (waistcoat here in the UK).

Having created my own pattern from an unpicked well worn vest which fitted perfectly but needed replacement I came across your video –
Simplicity Pattern 4762 – Mens Vest.

This proved very useful – but did raise a question.

At around the 54 minute point in the video, it says to stitch the lining and outside material together but to leave 4 sections unstitched.
At the 56 minute point it shows the vest being turned right side out and through one of the open seams and then the seam is hand stitched – but there is no mention of the other 3 open seams.

Why were the other 3 seams left open if only one is used to turn the material right side out ??

Any help/clarification here would be appreciated.

[the_professors_assistantKeymaster]

Hello! It sounds like you’re well on your way to having a new vest (or waistcoat) soon! I’m very impressed that you got so far on your first project and if you can do this, you can sew anything! Sorry for the confusion. Yes, you leave the side seams of the vest open, which are 4 (2 front, and 2 back). These seams are left open, so that after the vest is flipped right side out, you can sew the main fabric side seams together and then handstitch the lining and hide all the seam allowance between the two layers. If you just left one opening, you would be hand sewing a finished side seam with an unfinished raw side seam, at least on one side, and then two finished seams together on the other. It doesn’t mean you couldn’t do it this way but then you would have to do all hand sewing instead of part machine sewing. If you put the side seams together and sewed a regular seam, you’ll end up with a seam showing on the inside of the vest, which would look odd or you can just hand sew them all together, which might be more work and more of a chance that the seam would end up looking more irregular instead of straight. So, to answer your question, 1 unfinished front side seam comes together with 1 unfinished back side seam and then you repeat the process on the other side of the vest. It’s really all done so that you can sew the side seams and keep the seam allowance hidden when all is said and done. Hope that helps and I would love to see your project when you finish! You can do it! 😀

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