I feel kind of silly that I hadn’t thought of this hack, but now I’ve seen two sweatshirt versions of the Denver Tunic and I neeeeeed one! Read on to see how Dixie made hers.
Hello again fellow seamsters, it’s Dixie from DixieDIY.com sharing my Denver Tunic that I hacked into a sweatshirt. It’s winter here in Texas so I wanted to make something warm and long sleeved.
I liked the look of the dress but I thought a top would be more useful in my wardrobe and since I don’t often wear tunics (they tend to end right at my widest point) I decided to chop off about 5ish inches from the hemline of the tunic length. Instead of adding the hem band, I simply folded up the edge and top stitched with a twin needle.
Other than that I didn’t make any other changes to the pattern.
The fabric is a thick cotton jersey with gold dots all over it, kind of like metallic puff paint, from the Cloth Pocket here in Austin.
The cuffs and collar are leftover cotton rib knit. If you’re sewing lots of knits with cuffs, it’s a good idea to stock up on small amounts of solid colored rib knits to match up with other fabrics. The pattern calls for rib knit but if you’re not using that you should probably add an extra inch in length on the cuff and collar pieces to make up for the lack of stretch.
I didn’t make a muslin since most Blank Slate patterns tend to fit me well but I think I need to make a minor small bust adjustment. Luckily for me, Melissa is nice enough to include a section on how to do FBAs and SBAs in the pattern instructions so it should be easy to do. On this shirt, thought, it’s not something that anyone but me would notice so I’m not too concerned about it. Next time, though…
This shirt is cute and sparkly and perfect for Texas winter. Since it’s mostly solid it goes with plenty of other clothes in my wardrobe but the dots give the shirt texture and interest. It’s like the happy medium between cake and frosting.
I’d like to make another version in an athletic type fabric as a cold weather running shirt, perfect for some neon color blocking.
Thanks for reading and Happy New Year!
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