The Tunic Challenge Finale

It's the big reveal day for my tunic as part of "The Tunic Challenge" with quilting friend, Leah Day. We started the challenge as a mutual deadline to help each of us sew something for ourselves. This challenge definitely made me get it done. Well, mostly....

Remember my first muslin? Much adjusting was needed.

What was I thinking? An extra project in the midst of the Christmas shopping season while owning a retail shop and extra activities with the kids? Throw in a leaking water heater at the shop (the neighbor's, not even my own!) and this week was a real humdinger. Though this has been a week full of wonderful customers as well, so it's really still all good.

While it might sound like sewing nirvana to own a sewing machine shop, I don't actually get much time to sew. I do need to know all the machines I sell, so I hop around from machine to machine. I decided to give the Janome Skyline S3 some attention. It's my current favorite pic for someone who wants more room to quilt, but doesn't have a lot of money to spend. While it has a fairly roomy 8.25 inches to the right of the needle, it lacks a few features I've grown accustomed to. There were multiple times I was trying to raise the presser foot with the non-existant knee lift.

While as a plus sized gal, I had quite a few tweaks I needed to make to the pattern even though it goes up to a 2XL, another part I struggled with seems silly..... With a placket that sat on the outside of the bodice, I had a hard time wrapping my mind around which way to layer my fabric before stitching and understitching (above). I kept checking and rechecking that I really was supposed to stitch right side to wrong side instead of the usual right sides together.

The tunic didn't get the attention I had hoped to give it, but it is done!

I think I need to fine tune my pattern pieces a little, darts mostly, but after that, I will definitely make another tunic. The Tunic Bilble is full of variations for this basic pattern. Head over to Leah's Free Motion Quilting Project to see what she's stitched up. My many thanks to Leah for proposing this challenge.

It was good to stretch my sewing skills and get back to making something for myself. Plus, now I can wear a shop sample! The denim I used was from Art Gallery and I am looking forward to making another tunic with their cotton voile. It feels absolutely luscious.