Second try at Vogue 8731, tunic / dress

I had one yard of a rayon/polyester/spandex mix, a jersey knit. It was not much fabric, but could I make it work with this pattern??? Yes, I decided that I could .

At first I worked on making it according to the instructions, just plain brown, I am trying to make something simple!!! But along the way I just found it tooooooooooo BORING!!!! I just couldn’t help myself, despite telling myself that I would do this one stricktly acoording to the pattern.

I ended up adding a hood and color blocking with a linen colored fabric. My contrast is not a jersey like my main brown material, but it is quite stretchy and soft. I got it in a grab bag, so I am not sure what is in it. By the feel of it I would think there is some cotton, maybe a tad of rayon, and spandex? It is woven but has a good amount of stretch.

When I first started working on it, I had no idea what my results would be. I ordered some clear elastic from the states to help me stabilize elastic seams. It was a real blessing as I decided to make the bellow elbow sleeves.

Here in Norway we do not have enough sewing stores. At least not according to my needs. I end up ordering stuff from the states. My sweet sister in Wisconsin is very patient with me. She sends me what cannot be directly sent to from the online shops. I am sure fabric.com and other online sewing shops think I am a valued customer !!!

Anyway, back to the sleeves. I really wanted to stick to my pattern, not deviate too much, so in the beginning I used the sleeves as they were. But despite the elasticity in my second fabric it ended up a little tight. I cut away the under arm sleeve seam and added a strip of fabric to this area (See pickture). I also gathers the top of the sleevecap compensating for the fullness, it worked great . Instead of just hemming the bottom I made cuffs that I folded double and decorated using my new coverlock machine. (My husband just bought me a Janome Coverlock machine, now I no longer need to worry about twin or tripple needles, my machine can use three seperate needles at a time ) I also decorated the hood using the same paralell seam.

The last detail I added to this creation, was some tiny buttons framing the pleats on the front panel. The butttons are shaped like little flowers, stars and hearts, very cute . I had a difficult time getting comfortable with the pleats on this fabric, but I think the buttons helped “tame it down” a little. It needed a little touch.