"Tiny flowers" summer tunic

I love summer clothes. They are more comfortable and also easier to make. I could't wait for the weather to start warming up so I could begin to plan out some new additions to the summer wardrobe of my little girl (and  if I get the chance for me as well).
As we are heading to a warmer place for the Easter holidays I thought I would make a short-sleeved blouse/tunic for Eva.
It all started with this..

and ended like this..

I used two of the fabrics I had bought on my recent trip to Goldhawk road fabric shops. They were pure cotton and very easy to work with. Despite that, the whole project took longer than I thought as folding all the little pleats evenly turned out a fiddly job.
The other task that usually delays my work is handstitching the hems prior to machine stitching. It's time consuming, but it makes machine stitching much easier and straightforward afterwards.
Not long ago a friend of mine mentioned to me that she was watching The Great British Sewing Bee on BBC2 every week. The series followed ten amateur sewers who faced different challenges every week. Shte thought it might be interesting for me to watch. And indeed it was, but it made me realize again just how slow I tackled my sewing projects, which made me feel a bit cringeful. I really have to try to be more organized and concentrated.

And this time I couldn't do without a flower accessory. Initially I planned a hairband with a flower, but once the blouse was finished I thought it might work better if placed on it.
It could go either here

or here

Which look do you prefer? I will attach the flower permanently as repinning it might damage the fabric.

And again the most difficult part were my attempts to take photo of my little daughter wearing the blouse. After half an hour chasing her around the room with the camera and telling my boy for a hundredth time to stay out of camera's view (I didn't want his blue pyjamas showing in the background of the photo) I ended up with an empty battery and lots of blurred pictures.

An update on my latest project

I wish I could show you a completed garment, but unfortunately I am still somewhere in the middle of the project (a top with Peter pan collar for my niece).
Sewing-wise, I have done very little this week. It was half term which was meaning full and noisy home all the time, more playdough to remove from the carpet, more glue and spilled paint to wipe. There were a few friend visits, a playgroup, a birthday party and even a visit to a museum. So after all this, I was left with very little energy for something else. And when I feel tired I find that I get easily distracted by almost everything around me.
As always the most challenging and time-absorbing part was drafting the pattern. I used the new book ( 'Metric Pattern cutting for children's wear and babywear' ) to guide me through making the basic bodice, but I must say I wasn't quite happy with the result as armholes were too deep, so I had to redraw them.

Then I made a toile (a test garment). I used plain white fabric for the bodice and another fabric scrap for the collar, which was aimed to outline it so I could properly see the collar shape. This is how the toile looked.

The good thing is that a friend of mine, living nearby, has a pretty girl, who is nearly seven. I popped to her house to see how the toile fitted her. Now I am ready to start the actual sewing.

By the way I actually quite like the fabric combination of the toile. What do you think? I might make one for Eva (and maybe even one for me) when I get a chance.

"Flower garden" tunic

My little girl's handmade wardrobe has slowly started to grow. The new addition is the "Flower garden" tunic, which I wrote about in my previous post. If you have read it you probably have wondered which fabric I had chosen for the project - the one with flowers or the one with owls. I love both of them, but eventually decided on the flowers. I will use the owls fabric for something else, maybe a summer outfit.

 

I was slightly hesitant whether to make a blouse or a tunic and whether with short sleeves or long ones. I thought that tunic would be the more versatile option and as summer was still far away I thought it would be more practical to make it with long sleeves.
I feel slightly disappointed that once ready and worn the blouse turned out a bit larger. At least my daughter will have room to grow.

 

 As a whole making the tunic was quite enjoyable experience. Most of the steps were the same like those of "Winter fairytale" blouse, which saved time me when constructing it. I was so eager to start sewing the tunic, that I forgot to interface the neck pieces, which would have given a better shape to the neckline. I realized that too late and as I didn't fancy undoing all the work and starting all over, I left it like this.

And this time I couldn't resist the desire to make a matching hair accessory. My husband once joked that when wearing such an accessory our little girl looked like delicious cake topped with something. Now every time when I see her wearing something on the head it makes me think about this and laugh.
If you like to try to make such a fabric flower yourself, here is quick photo tutorial. It's so easy that you would be tempted to do more of them.

Thank you for reading!