Hi, searching the web I found a site with detailed instructions on how to make the Boba Fett vest. Most of it is general knowledge but I foun it to be a very detailed tutorial. Since most of us are going to be making our vest with the new fabric soon, I thought it would help. If a pic is not working the web address is:
http://www.azeem2000.com/bobafett/flakvest.shtml
Thanks Secol for hosting the images. By the way, I think the website belongs to a fellow member.
Boba Fett Flak Vest
Materials:
A. Simplicity pattern #9637. Yes, I know it’s a cheerleader pattern. It goes up to a size 18, or about a 40 inch chest, so make sure you get the right pattern size packet, guys. Buy twice as much fabric as it says on the back for the sleeveless v-neck pattern, or about 3 yards. You’ll need a gray for ROTJ or Preproduction (I use satin inside out), or white for ESB.
B. Get either an invisible zipper (hard), or 2 feet if Velcro.
C. Get 2 yards of a thin-medium interfacing, so you’ll be sure to have enough.
D. You should also pick up a washable fabric pattern marker while you’re there.
E. Thread to match your fabric.
F. Piping. It comes in little packets. You can get white, but gray is less common. If you can’t find your color, you’ll have to carefully sew over it in your fabric.
G. Time – It took me about a day, but I fooled around a whole lot during that time. If you work hard and don’t mess up a lot, you should be able to get it done in 2-3 hours at most.
* Special note about this pattern. It’s made for women. (Duh). It’s a good idea to measure your shoulders if you’re a guy, and make sure that the shoulders in the pattern will be large enough for you. The shoulder seam should be RIGHT ON your shoulder, not drooping down at all. If you see that the pattern is only one inch bigger than your shoulders, extend it by a ½ inch so that you have a little room. If it’s the same size as your shoulders, extend it by 1 ½ inches. The pattern should be about that much larger than your shoulders.
Procedure:
1. Cut out all the pattern pieces you’ll need from the pattern paper…Cut out the ROUND neck top back, round neck top front, and long sleeve. No, there’s no NECK. Boba’s vest doesn’t have an attached neck, so don’t put one on.
2. You will need to cut DOUBLE the fabric pieces that the pattern says. I don’t put interfacing in the back of the vest, but I still use double the material thickness. Otherwise, the difference is too much between front and back.
3. Lay out the pattern for the front. Fold up the bottom, like in the first picture, so that it’s the right length. It should be about four inches or so above your waist, but look at a pic of Fett to be sure. Fold it and hold it up to your body in front a mirror. Remember to add about an inch for seams, because odds are you’ll guess and make the vest too short.
4. Now to measure for the sleeve. You can see in picture two how much of the sleeve I used. The line didn’t come out in the picture, so I photoshopped another rough one in. It is really just a little cap, not even a sleeve. Mine are a little over 5 inches long when I cut them out. (Stop thinking that, I can read your mind!) Anyway, yours will be about the same length. Fett’s are really very short.
5. Like in picture 3, you can check your sleeve against the front piece. The sleeve will NOT go all the way to the bottom of the armhole. It’s shorter than that.
6. Like in picture 4, make you sure shorten the back to the same length as you shortened the front.
7. Cut out all the pieces, and interfacing for the sleeves and front piece.
8. Sewing in interfacing can be weird if you’ve never done it before, so pay close attention to the instructions.
9. First let’s start with the back pieces. Trust me on these; the way I sew this vest will keep you from having to do annoying finish work. YOU ARE NOT SEWING ANY PIECES TO EACH OTHER TO FORM ANYTHING RESEMBLING A VEST YET. WE ARE DEALING WITH INDIVIDUAL PIECES BY THEMSELES RIGHT NOW. I’LL LET YOU KNOW WHEN WE MOVE ON. Got it?Ok, take the two pieces that you cut out for the left side of the back. With right sides together, sew them together at the BOTTOM, INSIDE (the part that will get the Velcro), AND NECK. Don’t sew the shoulders or the outsides. Do the same thing with the right side. Now turn those right side out. The neck bottom, and inside edge should look like they have a finished edge to them.
10. Take the left sleeve, put right sides together, and put interfacing on the side. It doesn’t matter what side. Pin it just like that. Trim the interfacing about a quarter inch. Sew it only across the BOTTOM, not the part that’s going to get sewn onto the vest later. See picture 6. Now take just one layer of the vest fabric and pull it over the interfacing. Look, you formed a finished edge! Doesn’t the interfacing look cute all tucked inside? No, I didn’t think so either.
11. Do the same with the right sleeve.
12. Take the front piece, put right sides together, and put the interfacing on one side. Pin them just like that. Sew them together only at the NECK and BOTTOM. Nowhere else. Now pull one layer of the vest over and sort of inside out so that the interfacing is tucked inside. It’s not cute this time either, no. But see how the neck edge is finished, and the bottom edge is finished? That’s nice, isn’t it? You don’t have to go back and fiddle with those later. And it looks just like Boba’s! See picture 9.
13. Go back to the sleeves. Take your fabric pen and a ruler and mark out the stitch lines, just like in picture 7. Sew right over those lines. You could do it without marking them, but it’s harder. Just mark them. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking, and I’ve seen a lot of people whose vest’s have a crisscross pattern of stitches. See, the thing is, on Fett’s suit, I’ve never seen any evidence of crisscrossing. They’re just lines. Absolutely, positively for sure on Pre-production and ESB, just pretty sure on ROTJ. When you’re done, they’ll look like picture 8.
14. Okay, NOW IT’S TIME TO START PUTTING SOME PIECES TOGETHER. Just so you know. Do a dance of joy, you don’t have that much work left. As long as you don’t mess up and have to rip stuff out.
15. Take the back pieces, with the finished edges out, and the front piece, finished edges out, and sew them together at the shoulders. See pictures 9 and 10.
16. Time to sew in the sleeves. Cut two lengths of piping equal to how long the tops of the sleeves are. Pin these on to the RIGHT side of the fabric on one sleeve hole on the vest. Look at picture 11 for all the pins you need to hold it in place.
17. Now pin the sleeve in, right sides together, starting in what you are positive to be the center of the sleeve. Be careful to pin exactly right on top of the piping, so that you can just sew that 1/8th of an inch on top of the sleeve and know that it will look right. See picture 11 again.
18. Now see picture 12 for how many pins you’re supposed to use. At LEAST. Don’t get lazy with the pins. The secret to good sewing is all in the pins.
19. Now, you’ll need to take the bottom of the sleeve and fold it back a tiny bit, then fold it again to cover the raw edge. This is because Fett’s sleeves are too short to go all the way around his armhole. See picture 13. Fold it back for about two inches down the length of the vest (but only about ¼ inch in). This will give you plenty of room when you’re doing those super-cool Fett poses. You might want to pin the sides closed and do a test to make sure the armholes are big enough at this point. If not, fold them down a little more. Sew them.
20. Sew the sides closed.
21. Sew Velcro, see picture 14.
22. See picture 15 for a final product. You will probably look more manly in your vest than I look in mine. That is because you are a man. Try yours on and wear it around, trying to bring it back into fashion. Wonder why other people just don’t understand your Star Wars obsession.
23. If you use a jet pack harness, you’ll need to figure out where you want the holes to be in your vest, then finish the edges with some kind of edge finisher. When I did it, I just used the finisher setting on the sewing machine. I don’t use a harness any more because my jet pack only weighs a few pounds, so I am not going to be putting in any holes.
24. You can sew in Velcro or add snaps for the armor. I don’t recommend attaching it with hot glue, as I did with my first vest. The fabric will eventually tear.
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You will find more pictures in the web address above.
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Originally Posted by Paul Jameson 
