Working My Fingers to the Bone….

I always thought the saying went “If you love someone, set them free”.

Apparently that is just a loose translation of, “If you love someone, go through hell and back to make them a custom shooting vest in full-on Remington colors, and practically inaccessible mesh fabric normally only available to wholesalers”

At least, that is my husband’s translation.

Allow me to give you a little background information. See, my husband is a die-hard Remington Arms fan. Which, in turn, makes us a Remington Arms family. The hubs is also a stickler for detail. So, when he started shooting trap competitively last year, the wheels in his brain started turning.

He wanted a Remington shooting vest. I could not deny the appeal. So I went shopping. As it turns out, Remington does make a shooting vest. It looks like this:

Very nice, no?

NO.

If you are going to go Remington, you’ve got to go big. At least, that seems to be how my husband’s mind works, because he quickly shot down this option in favor of a Remington Green and Yellow vest. Did you notice the material the vest is made of? Yes, that is mesh. A utility fabric. Normally only available to wholesalers. And he wanted a Remington logo on it. And he wanted coordinating green padded shoulders. And he wanted it for CHRISTMAS…..ahem…last year.

Needless to say, I didn’t make it. But, in all fairness, I told him that wasn’t going to happen when he asked for it. I had way too many other projects already in the works with a Christmas deadline. What I DID do, however, was scour the internet for green or yellow mesh and coordinating twill. It took awhile, but I managed to pull together all the elements needed and then…..stalled.

And stalled.

And STALLED some more.

I didn’t want to do it. I really didn’t. It was going to be a nightmare. They don’t make patterns for shooting vests. I know people who can just look at a garment and recreate it, without a pattern. I am not one of those people. So finally, shortly before Father’s Day (this was the secondary completion date requested by the hubby), I began work in earnest.

If you think velvet is a pain to work with…. corduroy….anything at all….nothing compares to the nightmare that is MESH. Especially THIS mesh. It has very large holes and for any piece of material you want to attach to it, you better have another piece of material BEHIND the mesh for the thread to grab onto.

And so…. After several days, more than a few “pinned” fingertips, and multitudes of curse words, the best Father’s Day present EVER was born.

Silly man thinks he’s going to talk me into making a matching one for a friend of his.

Silly, silly man……