Tag Archives: Endless Summer Tunic

11:15 am - October 28, 2014 - AngelaH

Dressing up

For a while now I’ve been wanting to incorporate more skirts and dresses into my regular wardrobe. I don’t work in a fancy office, so there’s no pressure to dress up (just as well, really, since I’ll probably always jeans and a t-shirt best), but it’s nice to have options in the morning, and to change things up, so I’ve been working on it. I am not a big shopper, so when it comes to new clothes these days a lot of enters my closet is handmade, so more skirts and dresses means making more skirts and dresses.

I don’t know if you can tell, but I’m freezing in this picture. I also really need a haircut. Oof.

All of which brings me to my most recent sewing project. I sewed another Endless Summer Tunic, but this time added another two inches to the length and put in the pockets. I used Liberty Lawn in Lauren’s Leaf (my LYS started carrying Liberty earlier this year and I had a gift certificate burning a hole in my pocket, so…) and wow, what a delightful experience start to finish.

I love this print so much.

I’m sure it helped that I’d sewn the pattern before, and I was definitely way, way more patient this time around, including when I put on the almost-finished dress and discovered that the fit in the back was all wrong. I ended up ripping out the seam at the back yoke and taking two inches off the top of the back piece, which has fixed the issue (I think I need to narrow the shoulders a little next time, but it’s nothing I can’t live with).

It might seem like a strange choice to sew a sleeveless dress just as the weather is starting to cool, but there was a method to my madness. First, that the lawn is a lightweight fabric, so this will be wearable year-round; second, that the loose shape will easily allow for leggings underneath as it gets colder; and third, that my office is pretty warm and I’m a big fan of cardigans. Basically, I wear t-shirts all year round, and I’m not sure that extra little cap of fabric offers up that much extra warmth (we’ll see what I say in January, I guess).

We photographed my mitts at the same time, and when I was looking through the photos I realized I’d never posted a photo of my Flukra in action. So here it is!

I think I’m just about ready to try actual fitted dresses now. I’m debating whether to try the very popular Emery Dress (which has darts, which I’m more or less familiar with — I’d skip the collar and bow, though) or the Hepworth Dress (which has princess seams, which I’ve never sewn, but so what?). This isn’t really a pressing decision, since my sewing time is limited, what will all the holiday knitting I have going on, but still. It’s fun to have projects to dream about. Also on my (dream) list is a second New Girl skirt, but with a different pattern at the bottom — I wear my blue one a ton, so I know a second would get lots of action.

Am I alone in my urge to mix things up with skirts and dresses? I know this feels a little out of left field to me, but maybe it’s part of a broader culture shift I haven’t been conscious of? What other patterns (knitting and sewing) should I be dreaming about?

Categories: finished, Sewing Tags: dress, Endless Summer Tunic, Liberty fabric

9:18 am - August 12, 2014 - AngelaH

Endless Summer

I know I should write the post about the California LYSs I visited (this is sort of like a prelude), but I feel like it has been ages since I posted anything finished (or, it had been before my Summer Skyps), so this dress is jumping the queue.

I have done a lot of sewing this summer and, as can be the way when you’re learning something new, I haven’t been very successful. I have sewed a half-dozen tops that are just blah, and it has been discouraging. (I should note that is probably as much due to my poor choice of patterns as it is to my skills. My last few tops have been pretty well made, but are unflattering, so can be donated rather than tossed out.) But, I believe in perseverance, and I know better than to be hard on myself about being a beginner. Even though I would consider most of my July projects failures, they all gave me the opportunity to practice new skills and get more comfortable at my machine, and that isn’t wasted time.

Which leads me to this dress. It’s the Endless Summer Tunic from A Verb for Keeping Warm, and I picked up both the pattern and the fabric while I was there (yes, I copied their example exactly. I wasn’t going to, but then I couldn’t resist). I had already been thinking about trying the pattern out, but what sealed the deal for me was that Verb had it made up in every size, so I could actually try them on to determine both whether it was as flattering style and what size to make. The pattern itself is relatively simple, so I wasn’t too worried about the execution.

I am really happy with this dress. It’s all wrinkled in these photos because we took these in the afternoon and I wore it all morning, but I just don’t care. The style is easy to wear, and I will certainly be able to wear it work, since my office is pretty casual.

To make it a dress, I added three inches to the length (below the pocket marks). Wearing it with a belt definitely shortens it a bit, so I might add another inch (above the pocket mark, I think, so they end up in the right place) next time. I actually left the pockets out of this version, since the double-gauze I used just didn’t seem robust enough to make pockets I’d actually be able to use, but I’m dreaming about another version in Liberty (this leafy one, I think) and it will definitely feature pockets. I like the idea of having a more fall version of this, and a darker fabric will look better with tights I think.

So, what do you think? Is it worth making another one? How to you handle disappointing FOs?

Categories: finished, Sewing Tags: dress, Endless Summer Tunic