Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Blue Linen Tunic Dress - Style 2040 (1979)

Necklace from Farmers
I'm not at all sure what drew me to this pattern when I saw it in St Vinnies. It doesn't have the most enticing envelope, very dated, in fact. But the more I looked, the more appealling it became. It's a very basic tunic style, with an all-in-one yoke and sleeve detail giving it a point of difference. Paired with 2.5 metres of lovely quality blue linen purchased from an early Fabric-a-Brac and just a few easy alterations, I felt I could make a dress that had very little resemblance to the envelope image.
The most obvious changes made were reversing the yoke opening from centre front to centre back, and getting rid of the zip. I also lowered the front neckline by about 2.5cm. Using the short sleeve version (without the cuff extension), I narrowed them at the hems by about 6cm after first fitting.
Did I mention the pattern has pockets? Tempted as I was to topstitch them to the outside, in the end I went for a clean look and just stitched a length of selvedge between them as a stay.
Very happy with the finished garment. Problem is, we had a bit of a rubbish summer here in Wellington, so as lovely as it is, it didn't get much wear. Never mind, there's always next summer (and the next, and the next...).