Being at home with 3 kids & in the throes of a chilly, snowy winter out here, a wardrobe comprised of sweats, fleeces & other misc. comfortwear is not exactly stylish, but makes sense. Next weekend is my daughter's baptism though, so I needed to sideline the fuzzy robe for a nice winter dress. The trouble was nothing seemed right-until I made this little number.
I used the Torii Tunic pattern from Serendipity Studios & a cute bird print fabric I found at Joann's. It has a real European style to it that I really like. I also like how there are a lot of variations that can be done with it (shorter to wear with jeans, different sleeve lengths, using more fabric combos, etc.). I was a little nervous installing an invisible zipper & that there were a lot of pieces to put together.
While I plan on making a few more (tunic length to wear with jeans sounds cute) I did have two big gripes about this pattern. First is the less-than-helpful yardage info. It's the same for all sizes (there is no way XXS & XXL require the same amount of fabric) & lists all pieces separately as though you're using different fabrics for every section. This made it impossible to calculate what I really needed. I laid out the pieces on my cutting mat and measured instead. BIG difference of 2 2/3yds total vs. the 4+yds indicated. Second, while this pattern is probably not for a beginner, the wording of the directions made some steps seem more complicated than they actually are and jumped around a bit too much. All in all though, I do like how it turned out, so I'd say it was worth getting if you have moderate sewing skills and like coming up with your own color & print combos.
