SEWN: THE PRETENDER

No more easily accessible photographer (hubby) means it's back to the trees with me.

Is the enthusiasm palpable?

But don't let that face fool you about how excited I am by this dress/tunic thing!

Is it a tunic? Perfect to wear with my ever-present skinnies?

Is it a dress? A look I'm much less likely to wear often, but I love that I have the choice.

And I do have the choice. Which is so new to me.

When I make, I make with an entire outfit in mind. Not an item of clothing. Not a question of how many ways can I wear this? Often what you see here on the blog is what you get when you see me on the street. Because I never mess with what works. Not even to experiment. Some might call me boring, I call myself happy with the norm.

But this garment is a pretender. I can channel my slightly more stylish side (perhaps undertaking a bit of pretending) and work it like a dress with tights and boots.

I can chuck it on first thing in the morning with skinnie blue jeans and metallic sneakers and work my day to day magic. Much more... me. Less pretending.

But pretending is OK. And choices are great.

And stripes! Matched beautifully at the shoulder and side seams (you'll have to believe me re the side seams). I pinned at every single stripe, I machine basted every single seam and then I overlocked. Overlocking slightly pushed the stripes out of alignment, but good lord - if you're going to look that closely at my seams we have bigger problems. I finished the hems with a twin needle.

I love that this dress/tunic is made out of a lovely soft and slinky double knit (I think it's a ponte but since knits are not my thing, I'm not sure). It's got a lovely weight and drape and its smooth finish means it skims happily over opaque tights or jeans without riding up. Win!

I sewed clear elastic in with the overlocking on the shoulder seam and reinforced the back neckline with the very last of my fusible knit stay tape.

It's holding its shape beautifully and if it launders well I may well have reached a knit happy place.

I'm loving the funnel neck which sits close to the back of my neck and drapes to more of a cowl shape at the front.

A typically amazing fit, as all Japanese patterns afford me, means that back is looking great.

This is Pattern 02: Tunic from the May Me Heart Warming Life Series. As it's untranslated you'll have to make do with the shots below.

I sewed a medium at the shoulder and bust and graded out to a large at the waist and LL (extra large?) at the hip according to my measurements.  It's a good fit, but I probably could shrink back to a large at the hip next time. I'm always paranoid about tight fitting bottoms.

If I can find some more well-behaving double knit fabric, I can see a whole lot more of these in my future. Comfy knits might just become my thing.