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The Otto Lined Vest Sewalong is a step-by-step video series designed to guide you through sewing the Otto, from choosing your size to finishing the final details.
In this sewalong, We walk you through each stage of the process in short, focused lessons. You can move through the videos at your own pace, pause as needed, or skip ahead if you’re already comfortable with certain steps.
The Otto Vest features a V-neckline, a shaped hem, and three buttons on the center front. Princess seams ensure a comfortable silhouette, and topstitching along the neckline, center front, and hemline adds subtle detail.
To follow along, you’ll need the Otto Pattern. Seamwork members can download it as part of their membership, and non-members can purchase it individually in the shop.
Here's what we'll cover in this sewalong:
Getting Started
Fabric recommendations: For the main fabric, look for medium-weight wovens such as linen, linen blends, denim, twill, suitings, and corduroy.
Look for lightweight woven linings such as cotton lawn, acetate, rayon, or silk for the lining fabric.
Seamwork members, take advantage of your member deals this month! You can save up to 20% off your order here.
Prepare to Sew
This lesson covers all the basic things you need to know to get started with this sewalong. If you’re a beginner, this will be really helpful to watch!
If you feel like you already know how to get your pattern and fabric ready for sewing, go ahead and skip to the next lesson and you'll learn to do some helpful fitting adjustments.
You're going to learn how to:
- Select a pattern and reference its skill level
- Select a size
- Prepare patterns and fabric
- Cut and mark fabric
Fitting Adjustments
In this video, you’ll learn some helpful fitting adjustments for the Otto vest.
Shoulder Width
You can adjust the width of the shoulders to fit your measurments. You will need to make this adjustment on both the front and back pattern pieces, as well as the lining pieces.
Armhole Depth
Armhole depth is the distance between your underarm and your shoulder. If your armhole is too high and digs into your body, you need to increase the depth. If it hangs too low and limits your arm mobility, you need to decrease the depth. You will need to make this adjustment on both the front and back pattern pieces, as well as the lining pieces.
And here are some additional fitting resources if you need them:
- Follow this tutorial to lengthen and shorten a sewing pattern
- If you need to adjust the armhole depth, use this tutorial.
- If you want to blend between sizes, use this video tutorial.
- To adjust the shoulder slope, follow this tutorial.
- Here are tutorials for wide or narrow shoulder adjustments
- Here are tutorials for small bust adjustments and full bust adjustments.
- If you prefer videos, there are bust adjustment videos in the Hansie sewalong here
We created a free downloadable PDF called the Four Height Zones to help you gather the information you need to make adjustments to your pattern where you need it. We recommend printing it out and writing your height measurements on it to keep in your sewing journal.
Compare these measurements to the corresponding landmarks on your pattern pieces, and you'll know how much you need to shorten or lengthen that part of the pattern.
Sewing Instructions
The PDF instructions will be your main guide as you work through this pattern, but we've created this video to walk you through the trickiest steps in detail. If you need help on a step not shown in this video, check out the Community Group Sew, where other Seamworkers and staff are ready to help out!
If you're brand new to sewing, check out the Learn To Sew For Absolute Beginners course.
The trickiest steps for this pattern are:
- Attach lining at neckline and armholes (02:00)
- Sew side seams (10:08)
- Sew hem (12:28)
