I was a little nervous about making this. A homemade shirt? Ehh…. a little risky. I didn’t want to end up looking like I belonged with these fine girls:
(No offense ladies- I definately fit into your color scheme as you’ll see below…)
I came across this Sew Liberated pattern and googled some images. Lo and behold, lots of girls have made these tunics and they actually look kind of cute! (p.s. why do I not like the word “tunic”?)
So I went to our local fabric shop armed with a birthday gift certificate from my sis, bought some really nice quality powdery blue cotton, let it sit there for 3 weeks and then got sewing….
I have to say that a few things went wrong here. First, I ran out of my blue thread about halfway through. So, I ended up using some gray instead- luckily you can’t tell. But, that did require some seam ripping here and there. Then, I had a major issue with the sleeves. The directions say to gather your sleeve at the shoulder first so it will fit the armholes in the bodice when you attach it- thus giving a slight gathered look at the shoulders when finished. Well, I found that my sleeve pieces fit the armholes perfectly and when I tried to gather them and sew them on, it totally didn’t work! I tried twice and after the second time seam ripping… I wanted to seam rip my eyeballs! Extremely frustrating to say the least. When I googled this issue online, I found many people had the same problem. Ugh.
…Anyway, here is my “tag” as of late- a cute little piece of bird ribbon….
The last little glitch in all of this was when I sewed the skirt to the bodice. I had to take in the skirt about 1/2″ at the center and create another pleat. For some reason my skirt ended up a little wider than the bodice… so, that wasn’t too big of a deal, but really this shirt is only supposed to have 2 pleats on the front. But, I’m happy with it. See? I’m smiling.
So, what do I think of the finished look? Worth all the seam ripping. I will make another one- maybe next time I’ll shorten it so it’s less of a tunic and more of a shirt. But, we’ll see… With these things, sometimes you kinda just have to go with the flow, cross your fingers and hope you don’t end up looking like a sisterwife!
– Erin
I love it! and those sister wives of yours! Hubs must be the luckiest guy on earth.
I don’t like the word “tunic” either (maybe we’re related), but, I love YOUR tunic!
This is adorable!
LOVE this shirt. A cotton shirt is just one of my most favorite articles of clothing. Yours is lovely!
I kind of hate the word tunic too. But I love your’s. Make me one. 😉
I made this tunic and everything turned out to be pretty easy until it came to the box pleat in the back. My back was wider than the front, but I took in the back pleat a little and everything worked out. I really like the tunic but I am going to make the pleats a little smaller. I bought more fabric and I will be making two more.
Just got this pattern, so excited to see you’ve found it reasonable!