Chevron Tunic

Generally I'm not one to sew with the trends.  If I'm going to spend the time making something then I usually want it to be a fairly classic piece.  Were it not for the black on white chevron contest I probably wouldn't have ever purchased chevron fabric.  I apologize to those of you who love chevrons.  Now that I have made a shirt with chevrons the trend will die a fiery death and be made fun of on late night television.  That's the way it works when I make something stylish. ;)  Actually, I'm glad that this is one trend that seems to be sticking around.  It's pretty fun.  The shirt even has the high-low hemline that's all over the place.  I'm just glad that I abandoned the first attempt at this shirt.  Chicken just isn't a good look for me.

I guess my makeup had worn off by this time.  Maybe I should look in a mirror before taking pictures.

The contest flyer said to make something bold.  Done.  I thought adding in the bright green contrast and the ruffle fabric would really spice it up.  There is, however, such a thing as overkill.  The black ruffles stepped over that line in this particular pattern.  It needs a pattern better suited to the ruffles.  This pattern...wasn't.  The fabrics I used were black and white chevron, bright green solid, and black stretch ruffle (which I later replaced with an old t-shirt), all from Girl Charlee.  I will be getting more ruffle fabric in the future.  I won't let ruffle fabric get the better of me!

The pattern I used is Vogue 8817.  It is one of several patterns that has an odd picture.  I wasn't supposed to have this pattern.  When I was deciding what pattern to use with my striped fabric this one came up.  I decided against it.  My mom was at the fabric store and buying me a stack of patterns as an early mother's day present.  Darn, right?  Anyway, this pattern somehow made it into her cart even though I had taken it out of the running.  When I saw the chevron contest this shirt immediately came to mind.  The high-low hem is on trend, as is the chevron print.  Add in a couple of contrasting fabrics and you've got the "bold and beautiful" garment they're asking for.

Weirdo pattern pose.

Nailed it.

One of the things that took the most time was matching the chevrons.  Asking me not to match lines and stripes is like asking a three year old not to blow bubbles in her chocolate milk.  It is inevitable.  It goes against my nature.  Matching chevrons requires more work than stripes, but the results are so worth it to me.  They don't make perfect chevrons, but the lines are all matched up.

I can make sense of the world when the lines touch in the right place.

After making the chicken shirt (see link in first paragraph) I couldn't bring myself to buy more fabric.  Instead I refashioned an old t-shirt to be the top.  I am chevron chicken no more.  

The shirt is fun to wear and super comfy.  The only alterations I made were shortening the waist (a pointless alteration for this pattern) and shortening the sleeves.  I'm not keen on the idea of going into summer with long sleeves.  I didn't even narrow the shoulders or raise the neckline.  Woohoo!  I always have to do that.  The only problem now is that I "expect" comments from people.

This will be great for a meternity shirt whenever I need it again.

When I put it on this morning I thought it would be a perfect top if I were pregnant.  As I am NOT pregnant it's a perfect top for embarrassing people.  I wore it to Blue Eyes's preschool graduation this morning.  Her teacher asked when I'm due and was getting ready to congratulate me.  Where I live, if a woman is of my age, has kids in the age range that mine are, and is wearing a flowy shirt, everyone will assume she is expecting.  Maybe I just need to practice standing right so there is sufficient doubt.

Less bun-in-the-oven looking

The Hubs doesn't really like the shirt but, as he is not the one wearing it, I'll still be putting it into the rotation of stuff I like.  It's fun and it's super comfy.