an in process 'vest' experiment in fabric draping fun!

I'm a big fan of the lovely Carolyn of Handmade by Carolyn, and earlier this spring enjoyed reading her back posts and 'catching up' with her style of sewing.    Everything she makes is fabulous, but one item that caught my attention is when she made this vest from the Japanese pattern book 'Unique Clothes Any Way You Like It' out of a single piece of fabric with 2 armholes cut out.   

 On a recent trip to Charleston, that always involves a stop at the local bookstore, I ran across the 'ShapeShape:  Sewing Clothing Patterns to Wear Multiple Ways' by Natsuno Hiraiwa book and was drawn in.  One vest caught my eye and it reminded me of Carolyn's.  We were pressed for time, so the book was closed and put back on the shelf, but at lunch I drew a little diagram to remind me of how the fabric should drape depending if one wears the vest with the curve at the back, or with the curve at the front.  I re-drew my little drawing on graph paper when I got home.  This probably means nothing to anyone but me.  :)

At this point I had not connected my little vest, and this book, to Carolyn's, so it never occurred to me to check her blog for more info.  But that's okay, that's what made it so much fun!  Turns out both books are the same book, just different titles and different book cover photos, but same author. 

I had nothing else to go on, but this little drawing... a piece of curved fabric on one side, straight on the other with 2 armholes cut out.  I decided to sacrifice a piece of pink-ish knit fabric that was another one of those 'what was I thinking' purchases, so there was absolutely no emotional connection if it should be destroyed in process.  A note was made of every single thing I did, so if it should turn out to be wearable, I'd know how to cut the 'real' fabric I really wanted to use.  Those circles, photo below, became the armholes.  Friday's entire afternoon was spent in joyous 'playing with fabric' with complete abandonment of any worry of 'ruining' my fabric - and the stress relief of that added to the fun factor!  Many adjustments were made before the photos of today.  And even now, a little more adjustments will be made before it is considered 'done'.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying wearing it to get the 'feel' of what needs to be changed up.  Mine is worn with the curve worn 'round the neck, and as you can see in the photo below, I think I still have too much fabric layering a little too much on the shoulders, so that will probably be reduced.

Also, I kept mine long and lightly curved the edges, that in my diagram was shown as 'straight'. 

What's happened along the way is that now I've become very attached to my new garment and am worried that I'm going to mess it up, so I'm taking my time to think what I want/need to do.  :)