With the approaching of festival season, I’m super stoked about these Custom Vests!!!
These two vests were actually my very first Commission,
from Waaaaaaaay back in the day…
At the time, I was working for a prominent restaurant in Portland.
The Owner/Chef was a well known, long-time attendee of the annual Burning Man festival.
She approached me about commission to make a matching set of vests for a theme group outfit.
“Awesome!!! I’ll get some of my work displayed on the Playa!!!”
So we had a fitting, took measurements, and I drafted the patterns for two matching vests.
Pretty straightforward,
or so I thought…
But somehow, when I made the initial drafts, they were too small.
So I added extra on each side when I cut the fabric…
Now the chef/client provided the fabric for the costumes,
and had even warned me the a friend of hers had used it
and had found it difficult to work with…
“No problem, I’ll take a look at it.”
and I did, but I didn’t realize one thing:
The little mirrors on the fabric are held on with glue.
Pretty obvious, but I didn’t really think about it
until it was the night before it was due…
So it’s the night before the project’s due and I go to sew the vests together.
It’s only four seams and some hemming/finishing between the two pieces.
Should take only a couple minutes… Right?
But the thread on my machine keeps breaking…
WTF????
…Trying not to freak out as I rethread the needle AGAIN…
She even told me to check the fabric!!!
And I did, but I didn’t realize about the glue…
I cut the fabric with no problem,
but when it came time to do the sewing, the glue from the mirrors
was getting all over the needle and jamming the thread.
“FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKKK!!!
Why did I wait till the night before?!?!”
I faced the realization that I now had to HAND-SEW
these two vests before her bus left in the morning.
I got to work and spent the night frantically trying to get them together
enough to at least give her something to wear.
And trying not to Freak Out even harder…
The morning came and my Boss comes to pick them up.
Having spent the ENTIRE night trying to make them as presentable as possible,
I answered the door in my PJs.
She tried on one of the Vests and…
…it was Too Big!!!
“Are you Fuckin KIDDING ME?!?!?!”
-from both of us.
She angrily paid me for my time, took the Vests, and left
with nothing for her and her partner to wear.
EPIC FAIL.
…
That was almost three years ago.
I’ve grown alot in that time… Both as a person and as an Artist.
Lots of Life Lessons learned from this one!!!
Mainly:
Listen to your Client, they know best.
Don’t Procrastinate!!!
Measure twice/cut once.
aka Check yo’self b4 u wreck yo’self
aka Take your time to do it Right the first time.
I was recently back in Portland for a couple months,
and ended up working for the same Chef again.
While I was there, she asked me
if I could take some time to fix those Vests for her.
“They’re a mess!!!”
Looking at the craftsmanship I knew she was right….
I brought them back with me to Puerto Rico and made them my main Side-Project.
I was very thankful to get a chance to actually take some time with them.
After taking them in, reinforcing the seams, hemming, and adjusting the buckles,
I finally felt much better about the project.
Making quality, durable garments is very important to me.
The goal is to be reducing garment garbage, not making more!!!
Needless to say I was very happy to finally finish these Vests after three years!!!
I had to treat myself to a little photo-shoot to celebrate!!!
<3<3<3
