Butterick 5961 Katherine Tilton Tunic, Done

The day after I bought this pattern, I saw it live at the Sewing Expo's style show.  I went, "Ooooo, cute! I'm gonna make me one myself, soon"

LOVE this fabric. I bought it at the Sewing Expo in Puyallup. At the MarcyTilton.com booth.  It has all my fave colors! Really. All of them. Well, except for brown. But all others are here. Black, grey, pink, purple/eggplant, and lavender!

The day after I bought the fabric, the swatches that I previously ordered from another online shop arrived. One of the swatches was this very fabric! I totally didn't remember that I had seen this before, and I was like, "wow. Ok, then. I must love this."  It's a rayon/Lycra light weight knit. 

After I cut the fabric, I thought -- oh, wait. Maybe I should have chosen a bit thicker knit..... Hmm too late. I even thought about turning it into a fitted long sleeve tee shirt, but the cut fabric pieces were too small for the tee shirt pattern I had. So, I went on to making this tunic anyway. 

Going by the measurements, I cut the size 12, view B. I made the usual petite length adjustment by taking 2" off at the waist, but added it back on the hem thinking I wanted it to be just a little longer than the  original design indented. I ended up taking about 1" off the hem in the end. So, +/- just 1" longer hem for me than the original design.

I also decided that I wanted a long-sleeve tunic rather than 3/4 sleeves.

I think this light weight fabric worked out nicely. I like the way it hangs and drapes.  This pattern  has an interesting sleeve design.  Square armhole. It would be interesting to use contrast fabric for the sleeves. One of the styles (view A) on the pattern envelope is exactly that.

The neck is supposed to be more like a mock turtle which would not have been a good idea for my short neck. So, I decided to give the neckline  a bit more scoop by cutting it further, going with the cutting line of size 8. 

The neckband looked too tall for me so I folded the neckband in half. This also gave the neckband more stability. I did need to measure and cut a longer neckband naturally.

Here is the back view.

I wonder if I should have made it one size smaller.  It's quite roomy, and I like that. But I think I could have done with a size smaller. No??

The bottom of the armhole connects to just about an inch or so above the elbow line.

If I raise my arm, my belly button will go "Heeellow!"

Don't get me wrong.  I love this top. I'm just wondering if I should make it with a smaller size next time. I'd love to make it with fleece or sweater knit next winter.

This was the first project I sewed with a walking foot -- which was a sweet gift from an RTW Fasting sister! Yes, you read it right. I was gifted a Bernina walking foot.

I was having a hard time sewing light weight knit jersey.  I chatted a bit about it on the RTW Fasters group page on facebook.  One of the RTW Fasting sisters pulled out her mother's walking foot that was no longer in use, and offered it to me! That was just about the sweetest thing ever. I love getting sewing supplies passed down to me. I can feel that all these loving hands of women that touched these sewing supplies, blessed each and every tool and as if to encourage me to sew better and with much  joy. Not only her mother had an older Bernina, it was the same model  as mine. Isn't that just the sweetest and amazing? I gratefully accepted the offer, and the RTW Fasting sister promptly mailed it to me. I screamed in joy when it arrived, and it right away met my sewing machine (which, by the way, still remains nameless. The name hasn't come to me...)

Oh, my.  What a difference it makes!  It's magic. The walking foot now is a semi permanent part of my machine, as light weight knit is what I mostly sew right now.  No more frustrations, no more cursing (hahaha..)while seam-ripping, no more super slow stitching, no more stopping often to lift the presser foot to adjust the fabric layers. My sewing stress level went down 500%!  Thank you, Chris!

I can't believe I didn't have a walking foot and I was trying to sew all these flimsy thin jersey knit all this time. Tools! Proper tools are so IMPORTANT!! (You'd think I leaned that by now.)

I'm so proud of this lucky coincidence back of the neckband.  Look at that! You can hardly see there is a stitch line!

This, was intentional. I tried to make sure pattern matching was happening at the sleeves.  Turned out pretty nicely!

To tell you the truth, I had a bit of challenge sewing the sleeves to the square armhole. 

It worked out in the end. 

I'm loving it!

Yes, I think I will make another one perhaps next winter in fleece.

Yes, I already have the fabric for the pants in this pattern to make. Can't wait!