Knit a Child’s Vest

Ann used tapestry yarn, most often used for needlepoint, to achieve the thick, padded effect on this vest. This is an easy project to personalize: just use the child’s favorite colors and add novelty buttons. PieceWork magazine subscribers can log in and access this bonus subscriber-exclusive PDF instantly.

Only in the Victorian era would someone name a child’s vest a “chest protector.” That is what Weldon’s Practical Needlework, England’s premier how-to books published in the late Victorian era, calls this child’s garment—and it does exactly describe it, but our guess is that calling it a vest will get it worn more often!

Ann modified the instructions from those in Volume 7 of Weldon’s Practical Needlework (Facsimile edition, Loveland, Colorado: Interweave Press, 2002). The yarn, designed as a tapestry yarn for needlepoint, has a wonderful spring, which, when worked in garter stitch, gives a thick, padded fabric. The vest is worked in one piece from the lower back, over the shoulders, and down to the lower front. The edges are trimmed with a few rows of garter stitch.