tunic shift dress

As I write this, it is Monday evening and thank goodness it is over! What a way to start the week and a friend was mentioning that good ol’ Mercury retrograde is up to it’s old tricks again. Expect delays and the like but I did not imagine a Monday would start with a nail in the tyre of our car – oh well, take a breath and get on with it and take your Monday down a notch or two and enjoy some reading and a cup of white peony tea!

As for my creative project this week I made this lovely long sleeve tunic I found in a book Handmade Style. What a wonderful pattern and easy to make and super comfortable to wear – though I will be making it a wee bit longer next time! This works well with leggings but I do have to be careful when I bend over…

In the pic above I am channeling my urban gardener or this outfit could be worn on holiday somewhere by the beach – perhaps Australia? We will be returning down under next June, I cannot wait!

Another fun thing I channeled this week was my inner hula hooper. As I was watching my daughter effortlessly hoop for many revolutions, every time I tried the hoop kept on dropping to the ground. Thanks to some help from some YouTube videos and practice I managed to get some hoop action happening while listening to Cat Power, it is so amazing how centered it can make you feel as it does require a great deal of focus to have your body in the correct space.

Last Friday was a big score day for me as I subscribe to an email list of estate sales around the Bay Area. There was one in Mountain View last week which had a collection of stuff that spanned over 50 years! I usually scour estate sales for vintage fabric which I did find and cannot wait to make stuff from. At this sale, I found a big olive pot for my plants, costume jewelry, and vintage champagne glasses – for whenever I feel like having a party. And as a special request from my hubby he wanted to some tools – check out this good looking vintage saw I found. I had to ask the dude at the sale if I could give it a go to see how sharp it was, so he found me some wood and thanks to some recent lessons with the 5th graders I tried it out – perfect! This saw would also make a great home decor piece for our cabin or yurt in the woods as the handle is decorated and shaped beautifully – dream on!

All in all a very productive 4 day week with just the right balance of creativity, exercise and treasure finding.

This project started with the idea that I can make a flat pattern from this book and transfer it to a mock up of a dress to see if it would fit before I attempted to cut it out from the fabric out of my stash. It took a long time to measure the pattern accurately and then I used an old sheet for ‘scrap’ fabric and cut out the pattern. The first thing I noticed on the bodice was how small it is! So I then had to add a few inches here and there to compensate for the bust measurement. The skirt part was fine as it is a straight skirt and once I got the sizing of the top right everything was all fine.

The book – I Am Cute Dresses

The pattern from the book – the shift tunic

The plan was to use a silk fabric I have been saving but as it turns out I did not have enough! Instead I found a cotton which does not have the drape but still sits nicely around the shoulders and bust. It looks kind of space age in the pictures on the shoulders and back but that is the design of the dresses in this book, using straight and angular lines. I never thought I would see it finished with all the alterations and in the end I got there once the sizing of the pattern was spot on! The good thing I am enjoying about this is that you can make the dress to exactly suit your body measurement and these are somewhat easy to fit as they just hang straight.

I have bought a rayon fabric to see how this will come out in a softer fabric as I like the way the buttons on the original dress float in the fabric. I will try it soon, as this week is Spring Break so who knows how much free time I am going to have to play in the craft room.