I delayed making this pattern for so long because I didn't want to tackle fit. The reason I sew is because ready-to-wear doesn't fit my short, curvy body. I know I need to make several adjustments to most patterns, but the task makes the process so much longer and sometimes frustrating. I have to remind myself that the reward more than makes up for the hassle.
I am over the moon with both versions of this tunic/shirt dress. This pattern stayed in the sewing queue because I've seen so many wonderful versions by Carolyn (Diary of a Sewing Fanatic) and by another sewer, Karon, on Instagram.
The pattern has two lengths, three sleeve variations (four if you count the added ribbon on view A), and a sash. I made view B in the extended length with the sash. I'm short enough that this can be a dress, but because the side split is rather high, I wear it as a tunic with leggings.
Fabric & Notions:
- 3 yards cotton shirting (both versions)
- needle: 80/12 universal
- 7 x 1/2" buttons (both versions)
- light shirt crisp fusible interfacing (both versions) and Shape Flex (version 2)
- regular sewing and serger thread
- walking foot
- scraps of tear-away stabilizer for sewing buttonholes
Alterations: First I made a 5/8" FBA and converted the dart to shoulder princess seams. Even though it's more work to create the princess seam, it's less hassle than trying to sew a big honkin' dart.
The pattern pieces don't include seam allowances at the princess seam; I added them directly to the fabric. Since I will likely sew this pattern a few more times, I'll create separate pattern pieces that include seam allowances.
FBAs always add extra width at the waist and hip lines. For this pattern, I trimmed the extra width from the side seam. The shirt is pretty loose fitting, so I didn't think I needed the extra width in these areas.
It's kind of hard to see the markings. In the above picture, the circle is the end of the side seam and beginning of the hem. This is where I trimmed off some of the extra width. I redrew the circle 5/8" in and retraced the hem stitching line. I hope this makes sense!
The muslin suggested that the upper bodice area was too long, so I removed 1/2" in length on the front, side front, and back yoke pieces.
I removed the same amount in the sleeve, but added back 1/4" at the sleeve cap. I can't remember where I read the need for the correction. Something about making sure the sleeve cap has the proper shape? I could also totally be making this up. 😬
For the most part, I didn't have any trouble with excess ease when installing the sleeves. The green and pink dress sleeves were a little harder to set because the fabric was very stiff - despite twice washing and drying on high heat. The sleeves for the second dress went in with less fuss.
Finally for the second version, I added 2 inches to the wide end of the ties; I wanted them to be a wee bit longer when tied in the front.
Construction: I sewed both dresses on the semi-industrial and made buttonholes on the domestic. For the first dress, I serged the side seams together. This made for an awkward transition to the side split hem, so for the second dress, I serged the raw edges and pressed the seams open. All other seams were serged together.
I cut two yoke sections and used the burrito method to attach.
Sewing the sleeve ruffles was a bit cumbersome, but not at all difficult: create narrow hem, add gathering stitches, sew both ruffles to the sleeve stay, attach the whole unit to the sleeve.
I didn't interface the front self-facing on the first version because, as I said, the fabric was stiff. I did interface this area (using Shape Flex 101) on the second version since the fabric was lighter in weight.
I also interfaced both the inner and outer collar stands for the second version. The method I use for attaching a collar with stand interfaces the inner stand instead of the outer stand. This is because if the shirt is left open, the inner stand can be seen and should have more structure. I've found that not interfacing the outer stand can sometimes cause the whole unit to slightly collapse under the weight of the collar. So I used light Shirt Crisp (from Fashion Sewing Supply - highly recommend) for the inner stand and ShapeFlex for the outer. I'll probably do this from now on.
Fabric: Even though the pattern envelope suggests 3 yards (2.7 m) of 60" (152 cm) wide fabric for size 16, I found that this was not quite enough. The sash pattern piece is really long and is cut twice. The sleeve ruffle piece is cut four times and sleeve stay, twice. These are also not small pieces, so I had to get creative with the layout.
In the floral pink and green version, I didn't have enough to cut four ruffles and had to piece scraps together to make it work. You can kind of see that the top ruffle is not as wide as the bottom and has a seam near the front. I tried to orient this piece so that the seam wasn't too visible; this is the best I could do. I doubt anyone will notice.
I just barely had enough fabric to cut out the second version. If you decide to try the longer views of the pattern, I suggest getting an extra 0.5 yard/meter of fabric.
Finishing: I used some sea foam green vintage buttons from the stash for the floral version. When it came time to pick buttons for the second version, gold easily won. I have plenty of buttons that match the colors of the fabric, but when I pulled the gold buttons, I could not resist.
The gold just gooooooes with it, right? It's so unexpected and unnecessarily flashy. Love it!
Conclusion:
I wore the floral version to a couple of appointments and got lovely compliments. I've yet to wear the other one, but will soon.
The second version is on my Bootstrap Fashion dress form and fits pretty close to how it would on me.
I am really happy with both versions. Though I finished the second one over a week ago, I left it in my sewing room on the dressform because it made me smile every time I walked in the room. It's just so colorful and cheerful!
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I'm working on muslins for garments for the Mini Wardrobe contest on PR. The rules are posted: 2 tops, 2 bottoms, and a fifth item. Seems simple. I hope I can finish.
L
