Life is crazy. We all know this. And we all know the best cure for crazy is some sewing time. I stole some time from all the packing and made up this tunic that had been bubbling away in my head all summer. I used the super simple pattern from Happy Homemade Sew Chic and promptly made it as complicated as I could.
Since it was a plaid, of course the yoke had to be cut on the bias, and I had to ignore Sanae's advice (which I can't find now) on how wide in the body it was and cut it according to the pattern measurements, also ignoring my own gut saying "That's really wide!!!" when I'd seen what I'd cut. A massive maternity moo moo was not the look I was going for.
Despite all this it was the perfect soothing project I needed to work on. The gathers made me look like I was expecting, so I changed it to big chunky pleats across the front and back then shirred the life out of it to give me some waist definition. What makes playing with fabric so relaxing? I really enjoyed working on the puzzle of this top and am VERY happy on how it turned out. Even if it doesn't look so fabulous in the photos.
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| Look at the great poof and flare this has! |
Another random fact is look how much bias tape I had left over! Talk about a perfect stash bust!
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| Look at that little tail! Whew! |
So how about you? Do you ever love something that maybe isn't the most flattering thing to wear? Is working on a sewing puzzle soothing or frustrating for you?
PS! It's the last day of 50% off my entire Etsy shop! I promise I'll stop spamming my Twitter and Facebook accounts after this. :) I know how much we all want more patterns and fabrics and how hard it is to resist a sale!
10 comments:
What a wonderful solution to the problem - the checks really make the pleating look meant and very stylish. I would buy this tunic!
Thanks! I had fun playing with the checks and I figured pleats were in keeping with the Japanese style.
I love the pleats, and don't the oompaloompas have a lot of fun anyway - this is a fun tunic. I agree, playing with fabric is very soothing.
Fantastic way to deal with all that fullness, pleats and shirring!
Thanks! You're right. The oompaloompas do have the most fun!
Thanks! I was ticked when it worked out!
I think that looks really cute on you! The pleating and smocking seems hard to do!
It does look fun and very easy and comfortable to wear. I would totally wear this during summer with shorts. It's cute!
Good luck with your move :)
Thanks Lucy! Neither were very hard to do. The pleats especially were easy because I used the plaid to get equal width pleats. The smocking was done on my machine and it really isn't difficult at all.
Thanks Carolyn! It would be cute with shorts!! Oooh! I even have a piece of turquoise stuff I was planning on turning into shorts. I bet they would match!!!
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