Pretty in silk :: revisited

I have been sewing like crazy. Since I bought my new sewing machine last September, I made several skirts, a couple of silk blouses, a dress, a T-shirt for M.(found a very good pattern from Ottobre) and a sweater for her as well for which I made the pattern myself from an existing shirt. Unfortunately, the sweat-shirt shrunk terribly after washing and drying just once - it's just about the right size for little H. now, which she doesn't mind as the fabric is incredibly soft. Let's hope it won't shrink any further... Anyway, this wasn't today's topic. I just wanted to show you this tunic I made and which I really, really like.

I got inspired by these dresses/ tunics. With the orange flowery dress in mind I went fabric hunting and I found a very nice weight silk - a bit colorful, more colorful than I'm used to, with a vintage style print. As a matter of fact, the flower print might remind some people of their grandmother's apron (I certainly worked that way for me) but I found it very cute somehow. And although it's real silk I only paid €8.90/meter, which is cheap, I thought.

The pattern I used comes from the same Japanese sewing book as this blouse. It's the dress on the front cover (dress D in the book) which I slightly altered: I left out the sleeves, and made it slightly narrower. As a matter of fact, next time, I won't cut any (side) seam allowances, as the tunic turned out a little wide at first. As with my other silk blouses, I used French seams and finished off the tunic with a hand sewn hem - so much nicer.

I wore the tunic to a party last weekend, combined with a long knitted jacket, tights and high boots and some last minute homemade jewelry. And it looked really nice, if I may say so myself. Since the dress has short sleeves, I'll be able to wear it in Summer too, probably over some white pants or a legging...
But let's get ready for winter first...