Connecting the dots…

“Tie back” tunic

The weather cleared up a few hours ago, and now the girls are both asleep - each in their own room. Frida has been sleeping in her room for four nights now, and there have been no problems at all - fabulous. That girl just loves to get her sleep!

However - back to my last sewing project.

Mads was out Saturday night, and I was supposed to have a good friend visiting, who regretfully had to cancel because of a severe migraine. Too bad, because we haven’t seen each other for a while and I was looking forward to it. We’ll see each other soon anyway, though - so it’ll be alright.

Nevertheless, I had a welcome opportunity to do some sewing, making the “Tie-back” tunic from the latest issue of Ottobre. I wanted it to be a bit more colourful than the “China grass” dress, because otherwise they could easily end up looking a bit too similar. The fabric I had chosen was a gorgeous design from Michael Miller by Sandi Henderson (she makes some beautiful fabrics) - the Ginger Blossom Buds Avocado. To match it, I had found some delicious lime coloured linen from the Danish designer Bitte Kai Rand. Finally for the ties, I wanted to go with a contrast using red fabric with white dots.

First up were the ties for the back of the tunic - they took me a looooong time to make! It wasn’t easy turning them right side out, and once I had them all turned, I found out that I didn’t press open the seams well enough. This meant that I had to open them up while on the inside of the ties, before pressing the ties. Phew! That tought me a lesson - remember when it says to press seams open, it’s probably important… After this everything basically went together really well and without any problems - until I was pretty much finished with the whole thing, and I found out that I had stitched on the ties too close to the center-back edges - or to be more specific, the ties were placed correctly, but the stitches came too close to the edges. I think I forgot about the center-back seam allowances when stitching the ties in place, and consequently I had to redo the seams, because otherwise there wouldn’t be room enough to tie the knots, and the back would actually have a gap of an inch between the edges.

When Mads returned home from his party at about 1:30 a.m., I was still sewing…

Now everything that went wrong due to my mistakes is fixed, I certainly learned a few lessons, and the “Tie-back” tunic is finished. I think that the bodice is a bit wide, but I like it a lot, and more importantly, Ronja does too! As soon as I get the chance, I’ll get a modeled picture for you.