Partially Redesigned Tunic

Several years ago loose flowing swing tunic tops were a dime a dozen and with my expanding middle aged belly they quickly became my favorite style.  However, today they are getting more and more difficult to find.  I not only love this style because it is comfortable and covers unsightly bulges, but the knit fabrics don't shrink up like cotton tops.  Pretty much every cotton top or T-shirt I've owned shrunk up above the waistline of my jeans displaying my muffin top and underpants, so I had to either use those shirts as rags or donate them to charity, thinking maybe they'd fit a short-waisted child or doll.

I was inexperienced with sewing knits, but found this beautiful fabric in my favorite combination of colors online.  I ordered the fabric first, and then searched high and low for a pattern that resembled what I wanted to make.  I quickly discovered that what I wanted did not exist in pattern form, so I ordered the McCall's EASY stich 'n save M9240 medical smock pattern.  It was close to what I was looking for, and I figured I could make the adjustments necessary to get it closer to my goal.

I did my research on how to sew knit fabrics, bought special sewing machine needles and made sure my machine was on the appropriate settings.  However, I learned that you cannot sew knits without first pinning, then basting, then sewing in small increments.  If you think, "This section can just get sewn without all the prerequisites..." you're wrong.  Knits require careful attention and positioning.  Almost every time the fabric on the bottom layer got bunched up and I had to break out the seam ripper.

Perhaps my biggest struggle was with the pattern instructions.  Not only were there typos, but sections were mislabeled.  The diagrams didn't make sense, the instructions didn't make sense, the steps were out of order...  It wasn't until I just decided to toss the instructions aside that I started making progress.  Common sense served me better in piecing this top together.

In order to get the top more like I envisioned, I had to lengthen both the bodice and the skirt hem.  The black waistband didn't really sit at the waist, but just below the bust of the young, perky-boobed model in the picture.  With me having a middle aged bust, I needed that waistline more down at my actual waist.  I also like my tunics to be as long as mini dresses.

Unfortunately, my adjustments weren't as simple as just lengthening the main sections in equal parts.  As I pieced the top together I discovered that I didn't take several aspects into consideration.

For instance, the dickey between the black V needed to be longer too.  I fixed that by inserting a second dickey above the original dickey.  They both were loose, so they have a draping effect that I kind of like.  I might use this technique in the future.  It not only gives me more control over the draping, but also which colors I want to be front and center.  I purposefully chose a blue piece of fabric since the original dickey was purple.

I also forgot to lengthen the black V frame.  I needed to use that black knit material for future tops, so I didn't want to cut out completely new pieces.  Instead, I just added little squares onto the existing pieces so as not to waste material.  Interestingly, the seams are barely noticeable since the fabric is black and solid.

My other big mistake was the I didn't realize that in the pattern, the black waistband only covers the front, but not the back of the top, so the front ended up being a couple of inches longer.  I'm currently debating on fixing this by either bringing up the hem in the front to match the back, or by taking it apart, cutting the back at the waist, and adding in another black band.  Somehow I ended up with an extra black band, so I already have it.  That fix will take a lot more time, but I think I will be happier with it in the long run.

If I really want to improve on it, and if I have enough fabric left over, I might just make a whole new back skirt that is looser and doesn't hug my butt, expanding the slit.  I also screwed up the slits by not taking the time to measure them.  One is much longer than the other.  I doubt anyone will look at my clothes that closely, but it will bug me.

I figured that if I screwed up something, it would be the sleeves, but I actually did a pretty good job on them.  Since knits tend to stretch and bunch up, any slight variation in length between the sleeves is hardly noticeable.

Though the fabric is tighter than I care for in the rear, the overall top fits amazingly well.  I'm proud of myself, because this time I actually fitted it to my own body at different points during the process.  What a difference that simple task made in the end.  After attempting to sew my last top, I thought I'd never try again.  It was such a disaster.  After years of work, I had nothing to show for it and wear.  All that fabric had to go into the scraps bin.  This latest top, however, can definitely be worn.  Keeping my expectations low leads to much more happiness and satisfaction.

Sorry about the blurry pictures.  I didn't want to spend hours setting up a camera with a self-timer on a tripod.  I'm having one of those days when my dogs need to go outside to potty every few minutes, so I don't have much time to spare on getting this post perfect.  If I have time in the future to take better photos, I'll edit them in.

My Latest Sewing Project

I belong to some quilting groups online, and I'm always inspired by what I see.  I want to start working on a quilt, but I have to first finish my current project because it is taking up every square inch of my work space in my sewing room.  I have a certain style of tops I like to wear.  I love flowing tunic tops that drop down below crotch level.  Very few people make jeans nowadays with a high enough waist to cover up underpants, so I try to cover my underpants with long tops.  I also like to cover my butt while I'm at it.

Very few places carry tunic tops anymore, or if they do, they are way too short or way too tight to be called tunic tops.  I don't need stretchy fabric clinging to my middle-aged tummy pouch.  So, I decided one day to just start sewing my own tops since I knew what I wanted.  The problem is that whenever I try to make garments from scratch, the dimensions are way off and the final result is unwearable.  You almost need an engineering degree to design clothing patterns.  I hate having to cut up clothing projects I spent months or years working on only to have no choice but to use the scraps for something else.  Fabric isn't cheap.

So, I needed a professional pattern to work off.  Of course, there were no patterns that fit what I wanted to make, so I had to find something that was close, and then alter it to fit my criteria.  I stupidly thought it was as simple as making the skirt part of the top longer and wider, but then found out that meant I also had to lengthen the lining.  Ugh.  I totally forgot to do that, so I had to tack on little squares of fabric, which looks awful.  I didn't know if I'd have enough fabric to make new lining from scratch and I wasn't willing to order more because I could see that this project was going to wind up being another failure no matter what I did.  I was now in damage control mode.

The pattern I bought had several errors in the instructions and I was struggling to understand what they really meant to write.  I'd read the instructions over and over and stared at the diagrams, but I couldn't make heads or tails of any of it.  I finally decided to just use common sense.

I started making good progress today when I realized that this was too easy.  Something had to be wrong.  Something was always wrong when it came to sewing.  I looked closer at my work and saw that the bobbin thread had run out four pin removals ago.  Argh!  I had to re-pin the seam and re-thread the machine after fixing the bobbin issue.

I went back to work and finished that step.  The next step of the instructions made no sense to me.  I did what they showed in the picture, and then realized that I was supposed to serge the raw edge of the lining before tacking it down.  I didn't want to rip out the seams of the tacking because I had already had to rip out the seams of one shoulder to get it to line up, so I just serged around the tacking.

I was feeling proud of myself for pushing on despite the setbacks, when I stood up and looked down to see that I had accidentally stepped on the tie to the top and ripped it off the garment.  One step forward -- two steps back. 

"Oh well, I can sew it back on really quick," I told myself.

Nope!  Somehow in that one inch of fabric I needed to sew, the thread got bunched up under the foot and my garment got jammed in the machine.  When it rains -- it pours.  I know when to quit.  Time for some oatmeal cookies.

This is Why I'll Never Be a Fashion Designer

Ha ha ha!  Fortunately, it hasn't been sewn yet -- just pinned.  The other good news is that I have learned never to sew until I look at the big picture and try it on.  Ripping out seams is a major hassle.  Although, pinning that seam wasn't easy either.  I was trying to get the pleating even all the way around, so it took me half an hour to pin it.  I actually did a decent job making it even the first time, but because I was so focused on that, I pinned the inside of the top to the outside of the skirt, and now I have to take out all the pins and start over.  Waaaaaah!

Fitting Fiasco

For years I've owned this wonderful, shapely cotton knit top that was my all-time favorite piece of clothing, because it not only had a flattering cut, but it was comfortable in any temperature, long enough to cover my bloating belly at the wrong time of the month, and dressy enough to wear in public, but not so dressy that I couldn't wear it while doing barn chores.  I wore it so much that it began falling apart at the seams.

Each time I went to a clothing store, I'd look for something like it, but could never find anything that came close.  I finally decided to recreate it myself.  I set it in my sewing room and spent about a year shopping around for the correct material.  I finally found a fabric that would work, but I wasn't sure where to start.  In the past, I always sewed clothing with the help of a pattern.  In this case, I needed to make my own patterns out of computer paper.  For about a year, I had crafter's block and did nothing.

I finally got on the stick and cut out some paper patterns molded from the shape of the top.  I then began cutting out the fabric.  After I cut out the back, I held it up to myself and thought, "This can't be right.  This is way too small."

Granted, I was holding the pattern for the back up to my chest, but I could still tell that it was way too small.  I then held the piece of fabric I just cut out up to the back of the original top, and it fit perfect.  It took some thinking, but I eventually figured out that I should try on the original top.

Holy smokes!  In the two years that it had been sitting in my sewing room unattended, my body had changed so drastically that it no longer fit me.  The top had a ribbon of material wrapped around the rib cage right underneath the breasts.  However, now that I am a middle aged woman going through menopause, my breasts have drooped to the tune of about three inches!  Which meant that I had to lengthen both the back and the front of the patterns for the new top by three inches in order to not have that ribbon of material running right over my breasts.  I would have looked pretty silly wearing that in public.

So, another lesson learned for the fabric design world.  Make sure the item you are using as your example still fits before cutting anything.  Had I kept going, I may have been able to finish the product, but I would have had to find someone who was my size from two years ago to be able to wear it, which would have defeated my entire purpose for starting this project in the first place.  I wanted the top for myself.

Current Projects

For years I have been collecting quilting patterns that involve kitchen related graphics like cups and saucers with the intention of making a wall hanging for my kitchen or a table runner.

I have never done paper piecing like this before.  I have to make two copies of a pattern, cutting one into pieces, laying the pieces onto fabrics, and cutting with a seam allowance around each piece.  Then I lay the pieces in the specified order onto the back on the other pattern copy and sew right through the paper along the edges.

When I am all done with the piecing and sewing and turn the paper over, this is what I get...

It's a crazy looking block.  I obviously did a better job matching up seams on the right side.  This was just my test piece.  It took me several weeks to construct it because I've been so busy doing other things.  I don't know if I'll be able to use it.  I might just consider the effort practice for bigger and better things.

The other project I've had on my To Do List is to recreate my favorite top from scratch.  I've worn this knit top for years, but now the material is very thin and the seams are coming apart.  I haven't been able to find anything like this top, and I was having a hard time letting it go, so I shopped around in fabric shops looking for a knit fabric that would be fun to wear.  I picked out the black scrolls with pink flowers on white background with black trim.

I have never sewn clothing from a knit before, and am already having trouble getting straight cuts because the edges curl.  Since knits stretch, I suspect that sewing will be a challenge too.  I am definitely not a fashion designer, but I'll call it a learning experience.