Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Burda Magazine 04/2011-118 tunic top

I made more #oonapants, y'all. They are so crazy comfortable. That means I need more tunics though.
Right?!?! I'm pretty sure I wore this outfit in 1989. I'm totally breaking my rule about wearing a trend the second time around, but I don't care.
The top is from the 04/2011 issue of Burda magazine. This is top #118, but lengthened to about halfway to the dress length. It is a really simple top - only 4 pattern pieces, and it went together really easily, at least it would have, if I had chosen an easier fabric...
The fabric is a poly/lycra single jersey from Fabric.com. They called it "Roma" jersey, whatever that means. It was literally the only piece of solid black jersey in my stash, which is sort of ridiculous. It's pretty thin and crazy curly, so it was a serious pain to sew. Such a pain in fact, that I couldn't bring myself to hem the bottom.
You can see the design features a little better here. The top has batwing sleeves, cut on to a yoke both front and back. The seam hits just above the bust. The neckline is a bateau style and finished with a simple turn and stitch hem. The sleeves are drafted VERY long, but I had to shorten them 7 inches because of fabric limitations. In this pic, I have them slightly scrunched up. They are bracelet length when pulled down. They are also VERY slim. If my fabric had any less stretch (this stuff could be swimwear lycra,  it's so stretchy), the sleeves would be too tight.
The other major alteration I made was to the length. I cut it between the dress and top length, as I wanted sort of a minidress/long tunic look. Initially, I put in the pockets, but they were an utter disaster in this thin knit. I looked like I had saddlebags hanging from my hips. I serged them off, and the silhouette is much better, but  now I have no pockets. Boo.
I wore my top today in full out 80s style, with my newest pair of leggings. These are the same pattern as the previous pair, this time in a cotton-lycra jersey from Nature's Fabrics. I wore it with wedge heel booties from Target, a vintage jean jacket and purple glitter sunnies from Target.