Mummy & Me Terra Tunics

Patterns - Love Notions Terra Tunic and Prisma Dress
Skill Level - Confident Beginner
Fabric - Mottled French Terry in purple from l'oiseau fabrics
Skills - adapting a pattern

I'm a sucker for my grandchildren - they are such fun to sew for!  And they have definite ideas about what they want me to make.  Recently, my granddaughter asked me to make Mummy & Me outfits for her and her mother.

I could have gone the easy route and made them both Laundry Day Tees because that pattern comes in both women's and girls' sizes.  But I knew my daughter-in-law particularly liked boatneck tops.  The Terra Tunic with its many neckline options was going to be perfect.

It has a lovely boatneck finished with buttons.

The tunic length is very flattering with its split hem, the back a little longer than the front.  My problem was that there was no equivalent pattern for girls.  Aha!  But the Prisma might just work!  It has a boatneck option.

The A-line version could be shortened to tunic length and then the hem would be easy enough to copy!  I printed off both patterns and taped them.  I drew a hemline that would be tunic length on the Prisma back piece and then copied the profile of the Terra for the split hem.  If you click on the picture below, you'll see adaptations I made.

Then I cut the pattern piece out.  I traced the new profile onto the front piece, but cut the hem 1" shorter.

That's it!  I followed the instructions for sewing from the tutorials, but when I got to the split hemline, I followed those instructions for both.  It was surprisingly simple - from printing the pattern to finishing both garments took just a morning of my time.  And apparently the Mummy and Me tunics are a big hit!

If you don't already have these patterns, you can get them from my affiliate links below.

Love Notions Terra Tunic

Love Notions Prisma Dress

Trendy Tunic for Girls - New Options!

Pattern - Love Notions Trendy Tunic for Girls
Skill Level - Confident Beginner
Fabric - l'oiseau fabrics
Skills - seam matching

When Tami from Love Notions announced that she was going to re-vist the Trendy Tunic for Girls to add more sizes and options, I was right onboard!  My daughter-in-law has told me it's one of her favourite tops for her daughter.  I definitely wanted to make more!

The Trendy Tunic is a shirt that has built-in fabric blocking and that means that you can use those precious scraps you've been loath to throw away.  It has pockets - yay for pockets!  There are options for short dolman sleeves and inset 3/4 and long sleeves.  The updated pattern now gives you a hood and a cowl.  Now isn't this just typical Love Notions - options galore!

The sewing itself is straight forward and as usual with Love Notions patterns, if there's anything at all tricky involved, there is extra assistance to help you and this pattern is no exception - there's a video to help with the pockets.

The pattern was perfect for a l'oiseau fabrics remnant I'd been sitting on for some time.  This unique border print was only 52 cm long and the only thing I'd been able to think of before was a gathered skirt - but that wouldn't show off the Amsterdam street scene.  Hooray for the Trendy Tunic which was exactly right to display the border!  And I had scraps of the perfect turquoise cotton/spandex for the accent pieces.

But I'd like to share something I've learned to help make that seam matching go a little easier!  I have struggled with matching seams in the past - my serger wants to push the top piece of fabric past the bottom fabric.

So now what I do is match those seams and put a pin in right away.  I run a basting stitch in just that portion of the seam on the 3/8" seam line.

Then I take it to the serger and serge as usual.

The seam is perfect!  And just what you need when you have a super pattern like the Trendy Tunic which has seam matching for the shoulders and the sides.

So now my granddaughter has a couple of new Trendy Tunics and I have plans for more!  If you already have the pattern, you can download the updated version from your account on the Love Notions website.  If you don't already have this pattern, you can get it through my affiliate link below.

Love Notions Trendy Tunic for Girls sizes 2T - 16