I made the cutest matching quilted vests for me and my dogs from completely from upcycled materials!

One of my goals this year is to learn how to sew clothes for myself. I'm hoping to learn more about garment construction so that I can tailor and alter clothes for myself in the future. It's already 5 months into 2025 and I've made successfully managed to create two pieces. The one I'm sharing in this blog is a matching vest set that I made for myself... and my dogs, Pickles and Purl. I made them a matching vest and it is so cute! Scroll down, past the photos, for more details about the design. 

The matching set is made completely from thrifted materials: an upcycled dress for the printed fabric, blanket (quilt wadding), and pillowcase (blue bias tape trim).

Pickles and I

Me and Purl. With matching little bow ties, how sweet!

I used a free vest pattern from Tik Tok-er @selvedgestitch for my vest. For the dog vest, I used a self drafted pattern. 

All my materials were thrifted:

• The patterned fabric came from an old Gorman dress, and had a stain on it. I just cut around the stained part. There was enough fabric in a size S dress to make both vests.
• There was one inner lining in the quilted vest, and I used a fleece blanket for this.
• The blue trim was bias tape that I made using a thrifted linen sheet.