So I finished up the vest as much as I could. Hopefully on my next paycheck I can buy what I need to finish it up.
On the first picture, you'll notice that I altered the neck area for the front panels. After pinning the pieces together and trying it on, I felt like the neck was too small to comfortably slip in and out of, so I brought the center of the collar front down by 1.5" and then angled it up to the original sides of the collar.
To make the webbing strands, I cut the strands an inch longer than I intended, so that I could turn under a half inch on each side. To prevent fraying while cutting and stitching, I wrapped each cut area (prior to cutting) in scotch tape. Because of my school's policies, I couldn't use a lighter to melt the nylon.
Then I measured where the webbing would go. I goofed on the cutting and measuring, so there is some extra left on the left side (if you're wearing the vest, it would be the right side). The first source I went to said PALS was 1" x 1.25". After looking in several other places, I realized that it is in fact 1" x 1.5". In other words, between each strand of 1" webbing, there is a gap of 1". And each strand of webbing is perpendicularly anchored to the vest every 1.5". As a side note, when you start doing the anchoring, pin the nylon on both sides of the stitch line, as it has a tendency to shift. I had to redo several stitches because the nylon would shift.
Because the duck cloth was starting to fray a lot, I did a quick zigzag stitch on each side to hold it until I could finish the edges. I then sewed the front panels together and the back panels together, which I then sewed together along the shoulders, matching the marks and edges. I then pressed the seam allowances out and top stitched them.
Because I didn't have bias tape available, I used some leftover ribbon I had from a previous project to finish off the edges, which seems to work, except that is a little shiny.
I then decided to dye it black, but that didn't work as planned. During the wash, much of the dye washed out of the fabric, leaving it a rather plum color, rather than the charcoal black I was expecting. Again, on my next paycheck, I am hoping to get another bottle and do it again to see if I can change it.
Other than that, I think the vest is coming along nicely.