DIY: White Procession Vest...Yes, For Burning Man!

August is upon us.  Many of you know what that means!  This is the final planning, creating, purchasing & packing push before we depart for the Playa.  Here's a sneak peak of a little something I've been working on for the White Procession...

During a recent outing to my favorite thrift store I found the perfect white jacket for the Procession.  I was immediately drawn to it because of all the frayed edges and beadwork.  I generally go into Playa attire hunting mode with two things in mind a) color and b) texture.  This allows me to scan through packed racks relatively quickly.

Since I'm always down for a good Playa vest I first removed the sleeves! Then, rather than taking in the armholes, I decided to ruche (for lack of a better description) the shoulder seams in order to pull them in a bit.  This process was way faster than taking in both armholes...yet, it totally accomplishing the look I was hoping for.



I wasn't super excited about the lapels (but I did like the beading on the right side) so I decided to add ruffles all along the left lapel and up around the collar.



Original plan was to keep the exposed beadwork on the left lapel.  That was until my vest started taking on a Bjork-esque appearance.



Um, no thanks!  So I removed the beaded medallions and continued the ruffles all the way around.



Once I had everything pinned into place I was faced with the dilemma of how best to secure the ruffles.  I did a few tack stitches by hand and quickly realized that this project would never see completion if this was how I was going to have to secure ALL of those ruffles. So, being the corner-cutter that I am, I decided to shove those lovely puffs under my sewing machine needle. 

Tada!


As you can see, top stitching did flatten things out a bit but not nearly as much as I was expecting.  Honestly, I couldn't be happier with the results!  And the fact that this entire project was completed over the course of a couple evenings makes me all the happier.