Liberty Tunic

What do you wear when you get home in the afternoon?  Do you continue to swan around in the outfit you put together so carefully in the morning, looking the part of the domestic goddess, glass of wine in hand as you prepare dinner?  Not so me.  The more stressed I am, the quicker I reach for my comfort clothes.  For me, it is a loose fitting purple floral 70's tunic that I picked up in an op shop.  I have re-sewn most of the seams on this tunic, as the thread did not last as well as the fabric.  Only now the fabric is starting to wear too.  Time to find a replacement.

The pattern:  A Burda tunic, previously made here.   The pattern was originally tunic length, but I only traced off a shirt length.  When I lengthened it this time, I widened it to accomodate my hips, so I ended up with more of an A-line shape than the original Burda tunic.  This kinda reminds me of the lady on the "children crossing" sign.  I have always loved the silhouette of her short dress, though when I was a child I often wondered why they did not update the woman to reflect current fashion.  I think it would be groovy to have a different "children crossing" sign for each decade.
 

The fabric:  A Liberty cotton lawn. I love the feel of Liberty prints, but sometimes I find the prints to be a little busy, not allowing the eye to settle.  I added a hand-dyed ric-rac from a local craft store Pom-Pom Rouge.  I didn't stitch it on the hemline, which would have been neater, because I wasn't sure if it would look too childish and I would have to remove it (being easier to unpick if it wasn't on the hemline).  It doesn't look too childish, but I don't think it offers enough contrast.  I think I maybe should have used a contrasting print on the yoke?  Like previous Liberty garments I have made, something is not quite right.  Perhaps small scale prints are not for me.

Last holidays, my visiting sister was hanging out my washing and she asked why so many of my clothes were unfinished on the inside.  Some of them were unfinished because I made them on holidays when I didn't have my overlocker.  Others were children's clothes, finished with a zig-zag stitch because I was too lazy to change the thread colour on my overlocker for such a small garment.  Others were made from lightweight fabrics.  On lightweight fabrics I sometimes find that an overlocker is too clunky, so I use other techniques, such as french seams, zig-zagging the edges, or using a double row of stitching.  In the photo below, you can see that I used a zig-zag stitch to finish the inside yoke of the tunic.  It still makes for a neat finish, especially given that Liberty prints do not fray much.

The verdict?  It sure is lovely and cool to wear, and I have worn it a handful of times already, but I don't love it as much as my 70's tunic.  It actually looks better worn over jeans, but it was way too hot yesterday to get the jeans out for a photo shoot.  It was hard enough just putting shoes on.  There must be a thunderstorm on the way soon.