Fashionable Safety Vest

Safety vests are not the most fashionable items.  This project was inspired by an instructables tutorial. 

For running you need a high-vis vest with reflective elements, that will not rub or chafe while running.
I re-designed the vest to leave plenty of room on the sides where your arms naturally move while running and made it shorter so it would close at the natural waist.

Vest design in adobe illustrator

The fabric is high vis polyester from the utility fabrics section of joann's.  I cut the fabric on the laser cutter (Universal Laser cutter, fabric settings).  This has the benefit of quickly cutting a fairly intricate pattern, and sealing the edges of the polyester fabric.

Laser cut fabric

The original tutorial used circles of reflective material.  I was able to easily cut the reflective iron on strips with a papercrafting punch.  This allowed me to make them in all sorts or shapes, including stars.

papercrafting punch cutting reflective stars

Sewn on reflective tape on the front and back for extra visibility.

 

Test run.  Comfortable fit, however wearing a water bottle belt covers the reflective tape at the waist, and many of the iron-on stars are already coming off.  On to version 2....