Tutorial, part 2 - Quilting

For the quilted portions of the vest, you will need your walking/quilting foot and quilting needles. 

A universal foot will not work well for this; a sewing machine only has feed dogs (the things on the sewing plate, beneath the foot, that pull the fabric forward as you sew) on the bottom, so the uppermost layers of fabric will move at a slower speed than the bottom ones, and by the time you reach the end of the quilt line, your pieces will have slid slightly, no matter how well you pin them. 

(It's like trying to eat a burger while only holding the bottom half of the bun; you might get some of the top half in each bite, but it'll probably keep sliding back as you eat.) 

Try it if you don't believe us! You'll just be like ... 

The pattern pieces to be quilted are the two front yokes (piece A) and the back yoke (piece B). 

To start, you should have three cuts for each pattern piece: shell (wool elastique/cavalry twill), batting (low-loft polyester, sew-in fleece, anti-pill fleece, etc.), and backing (we recommend using the jacket body fabric - wool gabardine or cotton twill). 

Using your tailor's/dressmaker's white pencil, copy the quilt lines exactly from the printed pattern onto your backing fabric. They are precisely ¾" apart, so an easy way to do this is to mark the top and bottom of each piece then use a see-through quilter's ruler to mark them and ensure they're exactly parallel.

Stack the three layers of each piece on top of each other: shell, right side up, batting, and backing (so that the batting is sandwiched in the middle).

We highly recommend spraying some temporary fabric adhesive between the layers; even with pinning and the use of a walking foot, the layers can still slide around a bit, causing unsightly puckering and/or misalignment.

Pin the layers together, then baste the perimeter of the assembly ⅛" or ¼" from the outside edges to further secure them. 

Using your quilting/walking foot (and gray thread), quilt along the lines indicated from the wrong side.

Serge the entire quilted assembly. 

Once quilted and serged, it will look like this: 

Repeat this process for the other quilted pattern pieces. 

TIP: when quilting, always begin from the same edge - preferably the bottom edge of the yokes, and the upper rounded edge of the shoulder points. Switching back and forth can result in some unattractive contortions and puckers, like these: 

TIP: The spray adhesive will likely leave your finished pieces feeling rather stiff, so spray or briefly soak them in water to dissolve and/or wash out the adhesive, then set them aside to dry.


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