Hot Pink Reflective Vest Love

Seeking a new, easier to wear reflective vest, I spotted another commuter merging onto the bike path ahead of me one morning last winter. wearing a hot pink vest with various sized reflective polka dots. Hot damn, what a great vest, I thought and picked up the pace to catch up with the person to ask where she got it, but she was speeding up! When I realized the person was riding an e-bike, I slowed down, figuring I would find the style online and have it delivered to my door.

Or so I hoped...

I scribbled down what I could recall, but in the end failed to find anything remotely similar. Hmmm.

Adding drawing back into my life: envision what the vest might look like post-alteration.

What's a girl to do? I couldn't source local fabric or reflective material (pre-lockdown), so armed with a vision, I made do with a pre-made vest, knowing I could alter the style to suit my needs. And, who knew there's a site dedicated to women construction workers? (though not who I ordered from)

Ta da! I shortened vest length by 4", just enough for more freedom of movement without having to move the zipper.

Then I carefully cut out triangles and circles and re-positioned shapes in a pleasing arrangement, taking care to place shapes right-side up (material is reflective on only one side).

Then I resewed shapes and opposing fabric.

I rather liked how the backside turned out - less triangles and more circles!

A fun reflective pattern on the back side.

Like many projects that I thought I would get to after we moved, the fall out from Covid-19 had other plans and I have more free time now. 

In addition, as much as I like Dewalt's low cost, comfortable eye wear, I may have to get hot pink safety glasses to match my new vest. (If you scroll down to second option, there's even an "Annie" version.)