I started this vest in 2009. I was going to wear it at Steamcon I. Steamcon 3 has now passed, months ago.

The fabric was kind of the fabric from hell. It's a synthetic brocade (jacquard? Can never remember which is which) from Mulewart. It frays if you so much as look at it. It's thick and doesn't fold or bend well.The fact that I picked a princess seamed pattern was blindingly foolish with this fabric.

The pattern was supposed to be a lined vest. I have a fear of linings, so I decided to flat line it and cut facings for the front. Fine, except that this fabric needed to have all edges enclosed. Crap. I ended up binding a lot of the seams, all the edges that weren't faced, and the princess seams I overcast and prayed for.

Buttonholes? Right. Fear of them, too. No way could this fraying stuff have regular machine buttonholes, plus, the buttonhole setting on my machine doesn't work right. So I made a foray into the wonderful world of bound buttonholes. I'd made them exactly once before, about 37 years ago. And they weren't great. But watching a Project Runway marathon and having Tim Gunn's "Make it work!" ringing in my ears I bulled my way through. They aren't pretty; they look like a 12 year old made them. But they function. Barely.

So, after two and a half years, I present the butterfly vest (the brocade pattern is butterflies):