The (not so) Reversible Tunic (Dress)

Have I mentioned how much of a Pinterest junkie I am? Oh, it was that obvious huh? Yeah, well I'm definitely addicted. I have found so much inspiration and so many great projects just by browsing through all of the amazing eye candy every day. When I need inspiration for a project, I just go to Pinterest. It's like scrolling through Google images but with no weird pictures of cats in sweaters and stuff. Ok, there are a few of those too, but it's mostly awesome artsy pictures.

How many of you have seen this awesome Reversible Tunic by Kelly from Sewing in No Man's Land floating around in Pinterestland (and all over the blogosphere for that matter)?

I was practically drooling when I saw this tunic appear on my Pinterest screen, and I was pretty sure I could make one for myself.

Wait...did I just decide to make something for myself? I should have just stopped there. Embellishing an existing piece of clothing I can do, but I decided to go ahead and make myself something from scratch. Can anyone tell me how I got it in my head that I could venture away from children's clothing and actually make myself something? The minute I began the project, it was almost as if everything I knew about sewing completely left my head and I became a madwoman with a needle stabbing wildly at a pile of fabric.

Firstoff, I chose a very busy pattern that, while cute on Haley, looked more like hospital scrubs on me. Next, I made the mistake of not using one of my own shirts as a guide when cutting the fabric - this is something I do EVERY TIME when making clothes for both of the kids. I don't know what I was thinking. I ended up with a mumu/hospital scrub shirt that was wayyyy too narrow at the top. Luckily, since I have a daughter, I was able to alter it to make a cute tunic dress for Haley.

I didn't want to make it reversible like in the tutorial so I only used one fabric. I also made the tunic long enough to hit right above my daughter's knees so it became a dress. Because I decided not to make the dress reversible, I had to make the slit in the front differently. I used THIS method that I used when making the button closure in The Haley Dress.

Rather than making a casing for the elastic, I did things the lazy way and cut a piece of 1/2 inch wide elastic 1 inch smaller than my daughter's waist. Then using a zig-zag stitch, I stitched the elastic around the inside of the dress while stretching the elastic as I sewed.

The tutorial was actually really easy had I actually made it right the first time, and I have tenative plans to try again at making myself a tunic. But maybe I should just stick to what I know. I'm kind of glad things worked out the way they did though, I think the dress looks really adorable on Haley.

See how excited she was to model her new dress for me?

The thing I love about this tunic is that it's flowy and breatheable - which is perfect for wiggly little girls who love to jump and spin like my little ball of energy.

Here's where you can find Kelly's tutorial for the Reversible Tunic. Or in my case the Not-So-Reversible-Tunic-Dress :)

Happy sewing!

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