Y'all. The last actual garment I made for my own wardrobe was for LAST EASTER.
This is not a good set of circumstances, lol.
But Easter rolled around again, as it does, and this year is different. The church choir is on an indefinite hiatus so...for the first time in 20 ish years I could wear anything my little heart desired for Easter Service.
So I went through my stashed patterns and fabric and decided to make a blue linen tunic and pants. The tunic is Vogue 9305, which has been in the stash since 2020. I had five yards of Fabric-Store dotcom's IL019 softened midweight linen, in 'Medieval Blue' that I thought would make up nicely as a tunic and pants and be very easy to accessorize...besides going well with the Start with a Scarf 2022 Wardrobe...I still have two more month's worth of designated items to add to that wardrobe, but I have also been favoring those colors in my fabric purchases, so I have things outside of the 12-month specifics that I am adding...such as this outfit.
There is a wide-leg pants pattern in the envelope with the tunic, but I already have a TNT wide-leg pull on pants pattern so I just used that one instead...an ancient New Look pattern that I've been using since 2003...with tweaks for, um, age-related metabolic decline, lol. (read: I've added girth...)
Now, the Vogue pattern I had only went up to a size 14, and after doing some measurements and comparison I came to the conclusion that I probably needed about a 16, so there were some girth adjustments to be made, as well as petite adjustments since I'm only 5'4".
But this is an asymmetric pattern...which meant the adjustments were, um, rather tedious.
I traced off half of the top front above the lengthen/ shorten lines and made my adjustments for 1) petite armhole ( cut just below the armhole into the pattern for about 3", then cut up towards the shoulder , folded 3/4" out of the cut bit and filled in the gaps with tissue to shorten just the arm opening and not the whole bodice) 2) lowered the bust point 3) did a full bust adjustment 4) added 1" to the side seams, tapering into the underarm curve. 5) Lowered the neckline a bit so I could pull it over my head without a buttoned opening in the back. I did leave the dart unsewn, so I had to curve the bottom edge up 3/4" at the seam allowance to compensate.
Here's the finished half pattern:
Once I made all those adjustments, I traced the adjusted half of the front onto folded tissue paper to make a whole pattern for the top part of the tunic.
And the whole adjusted top bit, with the half pattern on top:
Then I moved to the bottom part of the front: I 1) folded out 1" in length in three different spots, to spread the length adjustment out some and 2) added 1" to the side seam. Then I taped the lower part of the front onto the bodice, matching the length adjustment lines (Interesting note... I did not do any length adjustment at those lines; that's just what I used to connect the altered top part to the altered bottom part). I also shortened the lower left side front piece by 3"...folding the length out at 3 different spots...and adding 1" to the side seam.
For the back, I just traced the pattern and 1) petited the armhole as I had done for the front 2) removed 3" in three places below the waist 3) added 1" to the side seam and 4) adjusted the neckline to match the front.
I also drafted front and back neckline facings because I didn't think I'd have enough fabric to make bias binding for the neckline.
All the pattern work was the hard part. Once I had it cut out, it was pretty simple to put together. I did extend the seam between the upper and lower left fronts a bit, and I hemmed the cap sleeves before sewing the underarm seam.
The linen sews like a dream and the alterations worked well. It does look like I lost some of the flare from waist to hem when I compare the final photo to the line drawings, and to the photos in the reviews, so that was probably due to alteration error; I did have to make some minor adjustments to the sideseams when I joined the top and bottom pieces of the pattern, so if I make it again I will see about adding a bit of flare to the skirt portion. But...maybe it's because I sewed that drape a little farther? Ok. Next time I'll stop on the dot, lol.
But it was really comfortable to wear! This photo is after two Sunday services yesterday, so I am a bit rumpled, but I will likely wear this a fair amount this summer. I can wear it over leggings, or skinny blue jeans, or white pants of any leg width...lots of options. Sunday I wore an oblong pink/ blue/ mint green/ white floral rayon scarf just draped around my neck, but a statement necklace would look good too. I think I could actually pull the neckline in a bit on the sides and it would still be pull-over-the-head-able.
So nice to make something again.
