An RTW-Inspired Tunic for Spring

This month's O, The Oprah Magazine says tunics are a great way to conceal a tummy without looking like you're wearing maternity clothes (read "the baby doll look"). Well, I have a midriff bulge I want to minimize so guess what I'm sewing for spring! I just finished making my own version of this Tory Burch tunic (above).

The Tory tunic is made out of silk cotton faille; mine is made out of black cotton lycra, this one a slightly heavier-weight knit that doesn't cling too much and is considerably less expensive than silk cotton faille. I got it at that fabulous house of knits and new "Project Runway" favorite, Spandex House.


The pattern I used was McCall's 5105 (above), which you probably passed right by when you were shopping for patterns because it's so dated and tacky-looking. But you can't judge a pattern by its ugly photos or illustrations, and this one is a prime example. Trust me, the fit is contemporary and flattering, and it gives you several different necklines to play around with. To make this tunic I added about 10 inches in length (using another tunic as a guideline), plus I widened the facings by an inch. And I added patch pockets.

I wanted the pockets to really stand out on this tunic. Originally I had planned to sew on beads like the Tory Burch tunic pockets, but when I saw how expensive a single packet of sew-on beads were I said, hmm, maybe I better rethink this. Fortunately I found this unique metallic trim at M&J Trimming in the city. It was only $3.98US a yard and I only needed two yards—such a deal!


So far, so good. As I played with the placement of the trim on the pockets I discovered a slight problem. How do I attach the ends of the trim to the pockets? You can see from the photo above that the squares are all linked, so anchoring most of them to the pocket using needle and thread was easy. But the ones that fell at the end! (8 unanchored squares per pocket.) I couldn't fold one square under the pocket because that made it too bulky. The only solution I could come up with was to get out some Alene's fabric glue and glue the little devils down.

That worked well for several hours of wear, until my dog jumped on me and popped off two squares. And eventually I will have to wash this tunic. So now I'm thinking a workable solution may be to hot-glue a snap to the back of the square and sew the other snap to the pocket. Which is all a big pain, but I received many compliments when I wore this tunic to work with a pair of jeans. As soon as it gets a little warmer here in the Northeast I'll pair this top with my favorite white jeans. And hope the little squares don't pop off.