Belcarra Tunic

When I purchased the Belcarra from Sewaholic I knew that it would be such a versatile pattern that I could manipulate to get multiple looks. This is my third look from this pattern.

This time a tunic!  I walked into The Fabric Store on 12 September 2014 and immediately fell in love with this border print.  I was there for another quite specific purpose, that alludes me just as this moment - coz every trip to the fabric store is for a specific purpose right!!!

It wasn't cheap at $36 for 1 length which was 1m x .95cm, but it was crepe de chine and felt soooo nice. After wrestling for some time with my inner voice I gave in a bought a metre. The border print is filled with pretty dresses in pretty colours ....

It's been sitting in the cupboard for a wee while because I couldn't decide what to match it with, until a few weeks ago, when I was back at The Fabric Store, I found some black crepe de chine on special for $10p/m.

I used every little scrap of the boarder print on the front and sleeves.  I then used the black for the back and the sleeve bands.  Because I didn't have enough of the boarder print for the neck binding and the black would have shown right through the cream, I had to use some knit tricot that I had in the stash - oh the joys of having a stash!

All the side seams and shoulder/sleeve seams are finished with a french seam. The sleeve cuffs where sewn as normal, right sides together, but then I graded the cuff seam allowance and turned the cream over and run another line of stitching around the seam allowance - the cream encasing the trimed raw edges of the black cuff.  The seam allowance had to be pressed towards the cuff so it wouldn't be seen through the cream sleeve. After a good press I tacked the seam allowance to the cuff by hand.

The bottom hem I used a hairline seam technique that is so easy and looks so great.

I fiddled with the pattern sizing a little more this time, after my dress version had way too much room around the waist and hips.  I traced the pattern off again, this time tracing a size 8 for the bust and graded it down to a size 6 at the waist and hips.  It's a little snug around the hips this time, which isn't the look I was going for, so somewhere in-between both sizes would be ideal for next time.

You may remember in my last post I talked about the WSBN 0 Degrees of  Sewing Separation Challenge... well this is my second link in the chain.  For the fabric I link to The Dreamstress who made a beautiful Dorothy Lara dress and for the pattern I link to The Crazy Gypsy Chronicles.  The full chain of links can be found in this post by The Dreamstress.

Thanks to The Dreamstress for taking some photos yesterday at our WSBN get together for High Tea.

More photos on my Flickr