Fly away tunic

I spent some time yesterday going through my sewing patterns, and unearthed a pile of patterns that I borrowed (read: stole) from my mom's pattern collection.  In with these, I found a pattern for a basic tunic that caught my eye.  In hindsight, the model looks so seriously unhappy (and a little confused) by the fact that her tunic looks like pajamas that she just doesn't know what to do about it:

But in all honesty, the text that reads "MAKE IT TONIGHT: An extra carefree pattern" sold me on the project.  While I am up for challenging patterns, I love being able to do a project from start to finish in a day,and the "MAKE IT TONIGHT" offer was just too enticing to pass up.  Despite the questionable photos on the package, I picked some fabric from my stash, and gave it a try.  I went with some adorable fabric from the "Nest" collection by Valori Wells that I ordered a few months ago.  And with a few minor updates to the pattern, I have a new tunic!

 The only real changes I made were to shorten the sleeves (I am in Florida in June, after all!) and to add a little embellishment on the front.  For some reason, I have been wanting a top with a scalloped embellishment on the front for what feels like forever.  And since this was such a basic tunic, I just couldn't resist!  At first, I tried a beautiful piece of blue and gold ribbon in the center of my embellishment.  While I loved the ribbon, it just didn't go with the fabric, so I covered it with this crocheted trim (although I left the ribbon underneath, and if you look closely, you can just see it poking through!)  I have some of the blue ribbon left, so I'll have to come up with something else to do with it...but I'm much happier with the crocheted trim for this project!  The most exciting part of this project was that I now have a basic shirt pattern, and I can't wait to play around with it!  I already have some ideas to change up the neckline, collar, sleeves, embellishments...you name it!  I can't wait to try them out!  Happy Friday!

Tunic: take two

Today, I woke up with an inexorable urge to go shopping.  I'm not sure if it was the sunshine, the fact that I'm finally done with this round of auditions, or if it is just one of those days; but whatever the reason, I couldn't shake the urge.  So I ordered this pair of loafers in kelly green (at $15 I just couldn't not order them!) but since they won't be here for a few days, I ventured into my box of castoff clothing and picked something to re-vamp.  So I started with this fixer-upper:

I bought this button-down tunic at Target a few years ago because I loved the print.  To be honest, I'm not even sure I tried it on in the store.  If I would have, I probably would have known that it was a super awkward length for me, and that I was never really going to wear it.  So to solve this problem, I chopped off the bottom, added a little bit of ruffle trim (how can you go wrong with ruffles?) and turned the navy belt into a removable bow pin.  Here is how it turned out:

This project was super easy and it really hit the spot today.  I had been keeping an eye out for a project to use this ruffle trim on, and I love the way it looks with the print on the shirt.  I'd call this re-fashion a success!

I hope you all are also getting a bit of the sunshine we're getting in Pennsylvania today, it's beautiful!  Today finally feels like spring.  I'm going to go enjoy it in my new top!  Thanks for stopping by and happy Wednesday!