Hello! Hello! Thanks for joining along for Day 3 for the Handmade Style Tunic Sew Along. It’s been fun for me to take time to process each bit and take things slowly. Plus I hope that if you’re joining along, that taking a project and breaking it up into smaller doable sizes enables you to enjoy it more along the way.

Today we’ll be sewing the neckline binding and the placket! I’m hoping the placket doesn’t scare anyone off. But if you don’t want to try it, that’s okay, too! The placket can be skipped and the tunic should fit over your head just fine. It’s a great option and of course saves even more time and steps. I like the placket detail and think it adds nice interest, especially if you’re using a solid or more subtle print.

Start by sewing the shoulder seams, I’ll be using a french seam for this, so you can follow these next few steps or sew it the traditional way and finish your seams with a serger or zig zag stitch – your choice.

Place the tunic front and back pieces WRONG sides together, matching the notches and sew using a 1/4″ seam allowance. Then trim the seam allowance to an 1/8″.

Press the seam and position the tunic front and back RIGHT sides together. Sew using a 1/4″ seam allowance and then press your seam towards the tunic back.

After the shoulder seams are sewn we can attach the binding to the neckline. Because the placket will be installed (and we’ll be clipping through the neckline anyway), you can start and stop the binding at the center front of the tunic. Turn the tunic so that the pieces are wrong side out. Beginning at the center front, open the double fold bias tape and align the long edge right sides together with the raw edge of the neckline.

You can then pin the bias tape all in place along the neckline, or adjust as you go without using pins. We’ll be sewing on the first crease of the binding closest to the neckline. After the bias tape is attached and you’ve reached the center front again, trim any excess tape and press the binding up away from the tunic.

Next, turn the tunic right side out and wrap the bias tape to the right side of the tunic and pin in place so that it’s just covering the previous stitching.

Once you’ve pinned carefully, sew the binding in place (starting and stopping at the center front).

That’s it for the neckline!

Now on to the placket, don’t be scared, if you take your time and press well after each step this will go really slick. A little bit of spray starch is also helpful for getting thing nice and crisp. If you’ve never tried a placket, I’d suggest grabbing a couple of scraps and practicing using this same technique. It’s better to mess up a few times with scraps than it would be with your actual garment!

Start by finger pressing the placket lengthwise to find the center at the top of the placket. With the tunic wrong side out, place the placket piece right sides down centered on the wrong side of the tunic front. Important: the placket needs to be placed 1/2″ above the finished neckline on the center front. This is also where I’d lay the garment flat on a large surface and make sure everything is aligned properly. You’ll want to be sure the placket is centered and straight on the tunic front. Pin the placket in place.

Sew on the marked stitching lines of the placket through both the placket and tunic front. This is also a good point to quickly fuse 1″ strips of the lightweight interfacing in place. Don’t skip the interfacing if you’re working with an especially lightweight fabric. Your buttons and buttonholes will thank you later. The strips will be fused in place like this:

This part might be the scariest, but with a scarp scissors cut down the center of the placket between the stitching lines of the placket. Angle out to each corner and clip to the stitching but not through it. Trim the seam allowance within the box to a 1/4″.

Turn the tunic right side out and bring the placket piece towards the center. Press each long side of the placket to the wrong side by 1/4″. Press the seam allowance towards the placket and then press the top placket edges down by 1/2″.

Press each placket in half lengthwise, so that it just covers the stitching from attaching the placket. The finished placket pieces will measure 1″ wide. Now to stitch it in place!

First, topstitch along the inner edge of the left placket along the long edge, fold the garment out of the way as you reach the bottom.

Topstitch along the right placket, sewing both long edges and across the top of the placket. You’ll be topstitching as far as you can sew just past the rectangular placket stitching box if you can. Just bend the garment out of the way to do so. Take your time, on the placket, the topstitching is what you’ll see most when you’re finished.

So now there’s a right and left side of the placket all set to go. Place the left placket on top of the right. You can put a few pins in place to keep the placket aligned temporarily. Now carefully trim the underside of the placket piece at the bottom edge. Don’t trim any off the what was the left placket, just what’s under it. This will reduce bulk for sewing the next step. One you’re done trimming, turn the bottom of the placket under by 1″. This will enclose all the raw edges. Press well and neatly pin in place. The bottom edge of the placket should meet the bottom marking of your waistband casing.

From the top edge of the left placket, topstitch along the top edge of the placket, pivoting down the furthest left side of the placket, pivoting at the bottom and finish by making a small rectangle at the base of the placket. As you reach the bottom, make sure the top placket is completely on top and centered on the bottom placket. You can also add an ‘x’ within the sew rectangle if you feel like it!  Press again so that everything is nice and smooth.

Now onto the buttons! If you need to take a break or walk away for a bit before starting the buttons, go for it. I like taking small breaks before starting on a totally different type of step like buttonholes.

I honestly always mark my buttons by eyeballing it. I don’t really have the patience to measure and mark. However, I’d recommend making the first buttonhole 1/2″ from the finished neckline on the placket and the bottom button 2 1/2″ from the bottom edge of the placket. You can change this to suit your particular buttons or your preference. If you want to do more than 5 buttons that’s totally okay, too. Even grouping buttons in sets of two might be a fun twist. It’s really up to you.

After marking get ready to sew the buttonholes. My machine comes with a buttonhole foot. It’s really quite easy. I always sew a test buttonhole with the thread and a scrap of the fabric I’m using so I can make sure everything is going to go smoothly. I also make note of how the machine creates the hole and measure the length of the sewn hole and compare it to what I’ve got on my markings making any adjustments using the test sewn buttonhole as a guide.

There is a bit of info on page 69 on an alternate way of sewing a buttonhole if your particular machine doesn’t have the automatic function. If you’ve never sewn a buttonhole, check out your machine’s manual and give it a try. I find that by doing the test run, it really takes the pressure off of trying something new.

After that you’ll sew all the buttonholes,  open the buttonholes and then sew on the buttons. Here’s a couple great little videos by Liesl Gibson you can watch, too: sewing buttonholes, opening buttonholes.

The hard part is done! Yay! The side seams, cuffs, and waist are next week. See you then!

Sew along notes: I’ll be spreading out the posts to be once a week, which will hopefully be a nice amount of time to get through each step as well as being easy to get caught up in case your schedule is full this summer! And of course feel free to work at your own pace, the posts will be permanent here on my blog, so reference them any time you need. If you have any questions please let me know in the comments below.

Handmade Style Tunic Sew Along – Day 1
Handmade Style Tunic Sew Along – Day 2

If you still need a copy of my book, you can purchase a copy of Handmade Style at your local quilt shop, Joann’s, local bookstore or Amazon. Or, check with your local library, too.

Welcome to Day 2 of the Handmade Style Tunic Sew Along. If you missed the first day, check it out here. Now that you’ve got your fabric picked and supplies gathered, we can start tracing and cutting the pattern pieces.

I think the most important measurement for the tunic would be the bust measurement (find the size chart on page 140). You’ll want to pick your size according to that measurement as well as make note of where you fall for the waist and hip measurements. This is a loose-fitting casual top so I think even if you’re off a little bit, you’ll still be okay. Fabric selection also makes a big difference as well. A nice rayon like I used for the coral sample photographed in the book has a lot of give, so it moves and stretches along with any movement. A voile or lawn might not be quite as forgiving. I’m a size Medium for the size chart provided, so that’s the size I’ll be sewing. If you’re different sizes from bust to hips you can blend the lines accordingly to suit your size.

To get a general idea of how the length of the tunic is on your body, I’d suggest simply holding the paper pattern piece up to your body (or you can measure with a flexible tape measure too). It might seem a little silly I’ll admit, but just this quick step can help you get a better understanding of the overall length.

Trace your pattern pieces using tracing paper, being sure to write the pattern information and markings on the tracing as well. If you’d like to adjust the length, I’d suggest cutting your tracing at the line where the top and bottom parts of the tunic were divided on the pull out sheet and either slide them together for a shorter tunic or pull them further apart for a longer tunic or short dress. For lengthening, once you pull the pieces apart where you’d like them to be, tape a new pieces of paper behind the pattern pieces and draw new side seams by blending the lines together. For shortening, slide them together and tape, then draw new side seams by blending the lines together. I decided to shorten mine by just a bit. Remember to adjust both the front and back pieces by equal amounts. Trace your size according to what you selected being sure to transfer any markings.

I should mention that you might want to cut into muslin or a cheap fabric before diving into the good stuff. You’ll be able to get a good feel for the sizing and shape by simply cutting out the front and back pieces and basting them together using a 1/2″ seam allowance.  It wouldn’t take too long to do, so I’d definitely recommend it. After making any adjustments or alterations you can go confidently and cut into your chosen final fabric.

Now that the pattern pieces are all set, you can cut out the pieces. Find the cutting layouts on page 143 of the book, depending on what size and fabric width you have selected will determine which is the best way to place the pieces. I prefer to lay the pieces out on my large self-healing cutting mat and cut with a 28mm rotary cutter using some large washers I picked up at the hardware store for weights. Back when I sewed with my mom, we would lay out the pieces and pin them to the fabric, then cut with a dressmaking shears (or pinking shears). Either way works, so do what’s comfortable for you. You’ll want to make sure you mark any markings with tailor’s chalk or a water-soluble pen. For the notches, use a sharp scissors snip at a 90-degree angle into the seam allowance by 1/4-3/8″ or so. Be sure to mark the placket rectangle, I would suggest cutting out the rectangle from the pattern piece you traced and marking those lines on the wrong side of the placket piece. Also mark the casing placement line on the right side of the fabric by folding the pattern piece up and out of the way.

[Transferring the waist casing marking]

[Transferring the placket marking]

Don’t forget to cut the 2″-wide bias strips and the drawstring pieces before you put anything away! I somehow always forget to do that no matter what garment I’m making. Follow the instructions on page 62 on how to make 1/2″ wide double fold bias tape for the neckline and 1″ wide single fold bias tape for the hem. Here’s a few pictures to show you my process:

Okay, so that wraps up the pattern tracing and cutting! I usually fold each pattern piece in half with the paper pattern still on top so as not to get confused which piece is what when it comes time to start sewing. So tuck them together and set them aside. You’ll be all set for next week!

Sew along notes: I’ll be spreading out the posts to be once a week, which will hopefully be a nice amount of time to get through each step as well as being easy to get caught up in case your schedule is full this summer! And of course feel free to work at your own pace, the posts will be permanent here on my blog, so reference them any time you need. If you have any questions please let me know in the comments below.

Handmade Style Tunic Sew Along – Day 1

If you still need a copy of my book, you can purchase a copy of Handmade Style at your local quilt shop, Joann’s, local bookstore or Amazon. Or, check with your local library, too.

Welcome to the Handmade Style Tunic sew along! Today we’ll be getting things started and I’ll be mapping out the remainder of the days of the sew along. I hope this will help encourage those who are new to garment sewing to give it a try and for anyone else that it will hopefully bring you a little fire to get going on it. For those of you who might be new here, we’re planning on sewing along together to compete the Women’s Tunic that is one of the two garment patterns featured in my book, Handmade Style. I hope to add in a few more fun options and suggestions along the way and at the end you’ll have a fun and casual tunic that’ll suit your style.

Photo by Holly DeGroot

Handmade Style Tunic Sew Along Schedule:

Day 1 – that’s today! fabric selection and additional supplies
Day 2 – Tracing and cutting pieces
Day 3 – Neckline and Placket
Day 4 – Cuffs and Waist
Day 5 – Hemming and wrap- up

Today I’ll be talking a bit about fabric choices and supplies needed to complete the tunic. If you don’t have any of these suggested fabrics already in your stash, I hope you can find time to do a little shopping and have something washed and pressed and ready to go for next week. I suggest using lawn, voile, shot cotton, chambray, or rayon for this garment. Any of the fabrics listed would be a great choice. When I’m fabric shopping I try to ask myself if I saw a top made from that fabric in the store, would I buy it? If I answer yes, then I go for it, if I’m not sure, I keep looking! Keep in mind that rayon is a bit wiggly (which is part of what makes it so dreamy to wear), so if this is your first garment I might shy away from it for now.

The instructions for the tunic start on page 71. However, you’ll find the size chart for selecting your size on page 140 and the cutting layouts on page 143. You’ll want to take a quick peek at the size chart and compare that to the fabric requirements on the first column on page 71.  You might find yourself needing less than what’s suggested, but these will give you an idea of how much you need. Generally, 3 yards of any width fabric will fit most sizes.

I quick pulled together a few ideas for fabric choices that I think would be really beautiful. Don’t feel limited to these though, there are so many great shops and designs out there!

Polka Sky // Southwest Motif Rayon // Indah Ikat // Chambray Union

London Calling Lawn // Yucca Voile // Diamond Lawn // X Dot Lawn

I suggest tracing the pattern pieces onto tracing paper of some sort. I use anything from tracing paper rolls I’ve picked up on Amazon, to something more substantial like Pellon 830 tracing interfacing. The pattern pieces are essentially cut in half to fit onto the large pullout sheets at the back of the book, so by tracing the pieces you’ll be able to put them together quite easily and save the pattern sheets for future reference, different sizing options (you know, in case your friend begs you to make her one), and to keep the other pattern pieces intact.

You’ll also need (5) 1/2″ buttons for buttoning the tunic placket. You could experiment with different size and quantities of buttons as well, so feel to take creative freedom with that.

Lastly, I suggest using a lightweight interfacing such as Pellon PLF36. Something lightweight will be perfect for adding stability and durability to the placket. You’ll only need a little so maybe you have some scraps laying around? Also be sure to pick up some coordinating thread and maybe a new pack of needles if don’t have any already!

Okay, so gather your supplies and pre-wash and press your fabric, I’ll see ya next week! I’ll be spreading out the posts to be once a week, which will hopefully be a nice amount of time to get through each step as well as being easy to get caught up in case your schedule is full this summer! And of course feel free to work at your own pace, the posts will be permanent here on my blog, so reference them any time you need. If you have any questions please let me know in the comments below.

If you still need a copy of my book, you can purchase a copy of Handmade Style at your local quilt shop, Joann’s, local bookstore or Amazon. Or, check with your local library, too.