Kids Junior Ranger Explorer Vest

Our family loves to explore the great outdoors together - hiking, camping, letter-boxing, visiting national parks. We have enjoyed both the New York State Junior Naturalist program and many U.S. National Parks Junior Ranger programs. We have a collection of patches and pins through these programs and need a place for them to be worn and displayed. There are pre-made Junior Ranger vests available for purchase, but I wanted vests that were 100% cotton (so iron-on patches could be ironed without ruining the material) and also vests that had ample space for embroidered patches (many of the Junior Ranger vests for sale have lots of pockets on the front and back along with lots of mesh, which is super handy, but doesn’t leave a lot of “blank” space for patches to be attached).

I sewed our original vests in 2019 before a trip to the Grand Canyon and they’ve been along on many adventures since then! I re-sewed new vests in larger sizes for our growing adventurers. My starting point is the oliver + s Explorer Vest pattern but I made several modifications:

- Changed the front to a V-neck

- Omitted the bias-binding and sewed so seams were fully enclosed on the inside of the vest

- Lengthened the vest by 1”

- Added a hanging loop

- Added pleats to the chest pockets

- Omitted the front lower pocket flaps

The vest construction has the following steps:

- pattern tracing (and modification)

- fabric prep and cutting

- sew pleated chest pockets

- sew gusseted lower front pocket and gusseted back pocket

- sew hanging loop

- add embroidered patches

- sew pockets and pocket flaps onto vest

- sew the vest pieces together

- sew outer fabric and lining together with enclosed seams

Sewing machine

Fabric (outer Fabric A and lining Fabric B)

Matching thread and bobbin thread

Rotary blade for pattern cutting

Embroidery scissors (and/or thread snips)

Ruler

Pencil

Tracing paper

Patches/pins

Trace (or create) the following pattern pieces:

- Vest front (with v-shaped neckline); cut 2 from Fabric A, cut 2 from Fabric B

- Vest back; cut on fold 1 from Fabric A, cut on fold 1 from Fabric B

- Front chest pocket -- essentially a wide rectangle; cut 2 from Fabric A

- Front U-shaped pocket; cut 2 from Fabric A

- Front pocket gusset; cut 2 from Fabric A

- Back large U-shaped pocket; cut 1 from Fabric A

- Back pocket gusset; cut 1 from Fabric A

- Back pocket flap; cut 1 from Fabric A, cut 1 from Fabric B

- Hanging loop -- 1 1/4" x 6" rectangle; cut 1 from Fabric B

**make sure fabric is pre-washed and ironed before cutting to ensure no shrinkage will occur

With a rotary blade and quilting ruler, carefully cut out all the pattern pieces

The smaller rotary blade (28mm) is helpful for cutting curves

Clip pattern notches

Create top hem:

- fold top of pocket to wrong side by 1/2", then to the right side by 3/4", iron well and sew side seam with 3/8"

- turn top hem right side out, finger press side seams and iron well

- draw middle line and lines 1/2" away from middle line for pleat markers

- iron pleat and pin in place

- stitch bottom (across the pleats) with 3/8"

- fold hem along bottom stitched line to wrong side, iron well

- top stitch top hem

- set aside!

- fold top hem of gussets towards wrong side by 1/2" and iron

- carefully pin gussets around each pocket curve (start by pinning in the middle and the start and end, then carefully pin along the curves)

- sew with 3/8" seam, trim and iron seam

Fold loop along the long edge with right sides together

Sew loop 1/4" from the open edges

Trim seam allowance to 1/8"

Using a loop turner or skewer, turn the loop right side out

Iron well and trim to size (mine was about 4-5")

At this stage, I placed all the pockets where they would be on the finished vest and placed my patches

It is much easier to sew on the patches that will be on the pockets at this stage rather than later on so I wanted to be sure to sew those on first

Iron patches onto pockets and using a matching thread and zig zag stitch, slowly and carefully stitch onto vest pockets

- carefully pin pockets and gussets in place -- for the gusseted pockets, I first traced where the finished pocket curve should be, then pinned the edge of the gusset to the traced line

- create back pocket flap by sewing flap right sides together along long curve; clip seams and turn right side out, pressing well

- sew on top of back pocket with 1/4" seam, trim to 1/8", then top stitch again with a 1/8" (enclosing the raw edge)

Sew shoulder seams right sides together with 1/4" seam

Baste hanging loop on the center of the right side of the lining fabric (my lining was meant to be reversed -- apologies for the confusion this may cause!)

Place the vest pieces right sides together (again, my finished lining will have the back of the fabric facing out!)

Pin along the front vest edges and neckline

Pin along both arm holes

Sew these both with 1/4" seams

Clip seams and turn right side out by pulling the front vest flaps through the shoulder to the back

Ensure all seams are turned, using a point turner if needed

Iron well

Pin each side seams right sides together - pining together the outer fabric, then the lining fabric

Sew each side seam with a 1/4" seam

Iron the seams -- it helps to iron the front seam in one direction and the back in another so they "butterfly" when they are facing one another; iron well

Flip vest inside out again, and pin along the bottom edge of the vest

Sew with 1/4" seam, remembering to leave a 3-4" space for turning right side out

Turn the vest right side out and iron the bottom seam well, including ironing the seam allowance for the open hole

Finish by edge-stitching along the edges of the vest -- start at a bottom side seam, sew along the bottom to enclose the open hole, and continue along the entire perimeter of the vest; also edge-stitch the arm holes

The vest is now finished and ready for more patches and pins!

Wear your vest on all your outdoors adventures! Collect patches from national parks and state parks and other activities and continue to add "flair" to your vest. The vest pockets are great for holding all kinds of nature treasures - acorns, leaves, rocks, sticks; as well as great for holding your explorer tools: notepad, pencil, binoculars, compass, magnifying glass, etc!