Grey flannel needlepoint vest circa 1979

Wearable needlepoint is usually confined to belts, cummerbunds, and shoes.  Years ago there was a company that did skirts with needlepoint panels and another that did circle inserts of needlepoint.  The former company also did vests that were sized small, medium, and large with no darting.  The first vest I stitched for myself was a painted design by Trubey (of course!) in the late 1970s.  It was stitched in DMC embroidery floss using the entire 6-ply on 18mesh canvas.  It was darted--the darts were indicated, but I did not needlepoint those areas.  In assembling the vest, I machine sewed the darts, clipping them so the blank canvas would lie flat behind the stitching.

The basis for this was a Vogue pattern.  I can still remember using a tailor's mallet to compress the Pendleton wool flannel fabric around all those curves.  I look at it today and marvel that I was ever that small--those were the days when I was a size 7.  The lining fabric makes me chuckle--Hardy Amies was a British clothing designer for Queen Elizabeth II.  I have never been label-conscious, but this was the only matching gray lining I could find.