Hello friends!
We had a question the other day about the patchwork I did for the Condesa Quilted Vest.
The Condesa Vest is intended as an apparel sewing pattern, not a patchwork tutorial. You can use the sewing pattern as a blank canvas for virtually any style of patchwork, embroidery, or other embellishment for your vest, which is why I didn’t include any specific patchwork in the instructions.
However, if you’d like to create a vest similar to the style I created for the cover of the pattern, here are some basic instructions to guide you.
I created a series of patchwork blocks by cutting and piecing together 1.5-3″ wide strips of fabric and then trimming them to size to make 6″ squares. Once I had made enough 6″ blocks, I sewed them together and cut one pattern piece. I continued this way until I had cut all the pattern pieces (remember to cut one left side and one right side!), and I used the trimmed fabric from one pattern piece to create the squares for the next pattern piece. It’s very intuitive and playful. There aren’t many rules!
For a similar look to my vest you’ll want two or three base colors that are similar in tone (color family) but slightly different in shade (darkness). I used three shades of navy linen and cotton as my base–dark blue, navy, and chambray. Then you’ll want a different color (the pinky peach in my sample) as your contrast. I included one or two strips of this contrast color in some, but not all, of my blocks usually just 1″ wide so it acted as a small amount of color. This way the vest is predominantly blue with little pops of contrast color.
There are lots of free tutorials for improv patchwork that can be found online. If you’re looking for more inspiration or just want a really good patchwork book, I recommend the book
Free Form: Quilts and Patchwork by Jessie Cutts. I recently bought it and thought it was really inspirational and very well explained. She has a very nice style, and she explains well how to improvise and play with your fabric in a variety of styles.
I hope that helps! My best advice is to simply play and have fun with your fabric.
You can pick up your own copy of the Condesa Quilted Vest in
printed paper version and
in digital format. I hope you’ll tag us #lieslandco and #condesaquiltedvest so I can see (and hopefully share) what you make.
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