One of my favorite personal sewing games is to see how much I can stretch any given cut of fabric. I love being able to use up every last bit of yardage. Over the years, I’ve come up with a few neat projects that make use of offcuts and remnants. Today, I’m sharing one of those scrap-busting ideas: a cropped, tied vest you can make from different fabrics.

The version I made is a mash-up of two designer garments that inspired me: an embroidered vest tied at the neckline from Celine’s Fall-Winter 2020 Ready-To-Wear collection, and a Toteme jacket featuring contrast stitching on the edges.

I borrowed the silhouette from the Celine vest, and the choice of materials and contrast edging from the Toteme jacket. Two small pieces of wool coating I had picked up from my local fabric store’s remnants bin were just right. One is a lovely shade of camel, and the other is a medium gray. There was enough to cut the vest fully out of both remnants, so I decided to make it reversible for ultimate versatility. Plus, I’d get added warmth from using two layers of thick wool coating.

Create the Pattern

Drafting a pattern for this vest is easy: You can use almost any vest, waistcoat, or jacket pattern you already have as the starting point. Choose a pattern that has a similar amount of ease to the final vest, and has well-fitting armscyes. I went with the Miller Waistcoat from Merchant and Mills, as I had it on hand from my last project. You…