The last time I was at my folks, I had a conversation that went somewhere along these lines….

Dad: You don’t need to buy me anything for Christmas this year.

Me: Ok, why?

Dad: You can make me a waistcoat instead. I liked the one you were wearing the other month and I fancy one for myself.

Me: Ok, no problem. What sort of colour do you want? What sort of fabric do you want? What sort of lining do you want? What size are you?

Mum: Your dad is a 42″ chest, I might have an old pattern in the shed, do you want me to pull it out?

Dad: erm…. I don’t know the answer to any of those questions.

Me: Yes please mum!

So rummaging in mum’s shed we drum up a 80’s pattern in what we thought was dad’s size (it’s not, needed a good 3″ added across the chest) and some lovely woolen fabric (above).

We did initially think that there was some lovely thistle fabric that we could use for the lining but turns out that there wasn’t enough for the lining and the back so we went into my stash and found the paisleys which I think we’re going to go for. Dad likes the pink option.