Revisiting a favorite pattern and mixing it up a bit!

Without a doubt, this is one of my favorite patterns.  It is super easy, super stylish, and so many variations!

 

See what I mean?  I love the raglan sleeves.  Depending on the fabric this dress can be casual or more formal.  I've made the dress twice and this time I had to make the tunic.  Oh, and I MUST try the leggings!  

 Here are my first two versions:

This pattern is designed for a beginner but that doesn't mean that an experienced sewer can't use it as well!  When I find a pattern like this, I just love playing with different fabrics to see how many looks I can create.

In case you are wondering, this is a pullover tunic and dress that is close-fitting through the bust that has a neckband--YAY! and narrow hems.  The leggings have no side seams and a stitched hem along with an elasticized waist.

  

For this pattern, it's very important to get the fit right through the shoulders, neckline, and chest and I like dresses/tunics such as this to also give me the illusion of more of a chiseled waistline than I probably have and this one fits the bill!  It also skims over the hips and outer thigh.  I feel pretty good about how I look when I wear clothing from this pattern!  Also, I purposely didn't match the stripes at the shoulders.  This way I think it highlights the raglan sleeves.  

Will you just LOOK at this freaking cool fabric?  It is a "white/multi abstract art print made from Rayon and Lycra".  I purchased it from Fabric Mart when they were having a sale on knits.  I snagged up 2.5 yards of this for $4.50 a yard!  It was even prettier in person when it arrived at my door step so I couldn't wait to make something cool from it.  It sewed beautifully and washed and dried like a champ.  If it wasn't so distinct, I wish I would have gotten more!  

So I pretty much made view A but the sleeves were a little longer than I would have liked.  I am 5'7" with my extra length in my legs so if you are shorter you'll want to shorten the sleeves or if you have longer than normal arms, you'll want to lengthen those.  Typically sleeves are just about perfect on me when I make up a pattern.  Back to the sleeves--I turned them under a good three inches, hemmed and then cuffed them.  I like this length a lot!  

Did I mention that neckband?  I cut that on the cross grain rather than lengthwise so the stripes ran perpendicular to the top's stripes--just to change things up a bit.  What I didn't take into account was the fact that there isn't as much stretch on the cross grain so I had to cut the neckband about 2 inches longer.  That worked MUCH better!  

With this being a tunic, I just hate tugging them down and I was a tiny bit worried it might be short so I went ahead and lengthened it an inch and it was a great call!  

Wow, wow, wow do I love this pattern.  I can't wait to make it again!  

Thanks for reading!

Sue