Tunic Love!

My short legs leave me with a tendency to usually avoid the whole tunic thing,  but I've now made 2 tunics in the last few months, and I love them both!  The first light-weight piece got a LOT of wear during the warmer months, and now I have a cold-weather piece that promises to be in wearing rotation just as much, if not more!  I made it on Sunday, wore it all day Monday; here it is Tuesday, and guess what?   Yup...wearing it again.  :)

This is the first pattern I finished in my new batch of Vogue patterns - V8962.   I had said that I hoped the shaping of the seams would work with my body, and I'm happy to report that it lived up to my hopes!  

If Vogue had not shown this piece made up in these dramatic black & white stripes:

I'm sure I would have skipped right over the pattern envelope.  I admit that I often rely on the vision of others who can see the potential in some of these cover drawings,  because my eyes glaze over when I see colors and postures like these!:

The good news on the fitting front is that I'm still giddy over the successful concept of using a basic TNT (Tried 'n True) pattern!  Once again, I just laid my own front, back, and sleeve pattern pieces over the pieces from the new pattern, made my adjustments, and was able to sew up a perfect fit without a muslin!    It still amazes me that it doesn't matter how different the seaming might be on a different pattern - in this case, a back yoke, and seams that angle from the underarm towards the center front, the TNT was so easy to make the adjustments with!

Now, if I can create a TNT for knit pants with the same results... but that's another journey...

The neckline on this pattern is very wide, (especially with my narrow shoulders) and deeper than I wanted, so I made the whole neckline quite a bit smaller.   Curiously, the sleeves were way bigger than the envelope made them appear to be - I actually narrowed them quite a lot (very unusual for me, since I'm often doing a full upper arm adjustment!)

I graded out to a size 14 at the waist and hips, and kept the length as is.  I think the back is a bit long on me, but I'm OK with it.   (the back is several inches longer than the front)

The fabric I used is a fairly substantial yummy-feeling ponte from Stonemountain and Daughter, with a minimum of stretch.  I had a serious fabric shortage - the recommended yardage with the cowl was 2 yards, and I had a shade over 1-1/2, but by shortening the cowl width-wise by about 2" (which was actually necessary because of the narrowed neckline), and by piecing on a bit of black ponte to the underside of the cowl, I was able to squeeze it all in.   I love being able to use nearly every scrap of fabric!

Showing the cowl with black fabric pieced on:

The fabric shortage meant that I wasn't able to match up the stripes on the front seams at all.   It wouldn't have been possible to match them all the way, given the uneven widths & 3-color stripes, but I would have preferred a slightly closer match.   At least I was able get the sleeve stripes somewhat matched up to the body :)

You may have noticed the curly edge on the cowl - this was a little bit of fun that I tossed in near the end!  The drape of the cowl was fine as is, but I decided to play with adding some shaping at the folded edge of the cowl and see what it looked like.   I used some moldable plastic that I got from Lyla Messenger at Artistry in Fashion last year.   Unfortunately, it isn't listed on her web site, and I don't have any details on it - I'll add more info and a link if I can find it (anyone?).  I sewed a seam about1/4" from the folded edge of the cowl, slipped the plastic inside it, and anchored it in place with a zig zag stitch - it gives some fun options for shaping the cowl!

The finished piece:

Overall, I really like this pattern!   It was super easy to sew, and I think that the shaping of the side/front seams is a bit more body-flattering than a lot of the angled tunics that are so popular.  If I make it again I might change the cowl shape, but I call this one a winner!

The pants I'm wearing are the new Donna Karan skinny pants - they'll be next on the blogging agenda :)