Plaza Vest

Every time I fly to Chicago, I always make time to walk through Neiman Marcus on Michigan Avenue to see the Eskandar line of clothing.The pieces are simple. The designer basically turns out the same designs every season and simply changes up the fabrications and perhaps a length or two.

I love the layering of the black and brown combos from Eskandar Winter 2016.

I used this as my inspiration to make a four-piece ensemble consisting of the MixIt Tank in a white crinkle, a Tremont Jacket in a black/brown tweed blend, a modified Plaza Jacket as a vest in a mocha English boucle rayon/wool and the Mimosa Pants in my favorite Calvin Klein black worsted wool/lycra.

The Plaza Jacket as a tabard vest is a real winner and is so easy to make. By simply lengthening the pattern pieces, eliminating the sleeves, and sewing a shorter side seam to make a side vent, this short jacket pattern turns into a long vest and can be layered over almost anything.

Here are the pattern modifications that I used to make it.

The schematic shows the pattern work for the Back. Make the same adjustments to the Front pattern piece.

1. ​Lengthen the Front and Back pieces 10". 
2. At the center of the pattern pieces, make a 3 ¼"-wide vertical fold from top to bottom to narrow the width a total of 6 ½". 
3. Add 5/8" to the side edges to make 1 ¼" side seam allowances. 
4. Lower the underarm dot 1 ½". 
5. Measure down 6 ½" from the new underarm dot and mark.​

Construction:

Follow the instructions in the guide sheet to make the Plaza Jacket.

Instead of inserting the sleeves, sew 1 ¼" seam allowances between the dots along the side edges.

Then press the seam allowances open and continue pressing above and below to form the side vent hems and the sleeve opening hems. All will be the same width. The actual side seam becomes encased in the wider pressed and topstitched "hems".

Topstitch the hemmed edges of the entire garment. That's it! You have a $699.00 or more designer garment for a fraction of the price!