May MAGAM Garments Completed - Part One

May has come and gone and I am late in posting my projects.  Seems to be a thing with me lately!

I had 3 garments as part of my May challenge:
- A Tunic from The Tunic Bible book
- The Flint pants by Megan Nielsen
- Urban pants by The Sewing Workshop (will be posted in May MAGAM Part Two - they are complete though!)

First off - the Tunic!

There are so many options for the tunic in the book it is a bit overwhelming at first.  I knew I wanted a placket of some sort in the front so I could use my big Rick Rack as an accent and I thought I might want a sleeve accent or an accent on the bottom somewhere too.  I opted for the regular Tunic blouse, with the Shorty Placket and regular sleeves.

The red and white circle fabric is a rayon that I purchased from a local fabric store last year that was going out of business.  The plain red is a quilting cotton purchased at the Sewing Guild's latest sale this year and the Rick Rack and buttons were from my stash.

There were a few flaws in the main fabric to start with so I needed to work around those when cutting out the pieces.  I opted to cut out everything in a single layer so it was easier to line-up the circles as the rayon fabric was very not behaving well on my cutting board at all.  Cutting out single layer meant creating full size pattern pieces - which was an eye opening experience as the pieces looked enormous to me because I am used to making more fitted garments.  I thought for certain I would be altering this top forever to get a good fit since I didn't do a muslin of the pattern first and decided to just dive right on into the final garment. I held up the pattern pieces to my mannequin and low and behold, they were close - so much for looking enormous - maybe it's just me!

I am not a fan of tunics in general but I have to say this one is growing on me.  The bust darts don't quite hit me in the correct spot (my fault for not doing a muslin first), but if I give it a few years, I'm sure they will line up properly!

For the placket in the front, I knew I didn't want just a plain red thing sewn to the front so I added the Rick Rack.  Of course the rick rack was looking pretty lonely by itself so I headed to the button stash where I found a bunch of red, rounded buttons that were the perfect color and looked similar in size to the small red dots in the fabric.  Then the question arose as to how many to put on the front?

1 button - looked pretty lonely
3 buttons - looked like a nice attempt
5 buttons - we're getting close, but still not there
7 buttons - that's more like it!
9 buttons - Overload, overload!  Too many!  Back off with the embellishments!

I can't say enough about the fit of the back.  I just love it!!!  It hangs beautifully.  The fish-eye darts really make a difference in defining the waistline.  I could have added a side zipper to make the garment more fitted (of course I didn't think about this option at the construction time nor did I read about it in the book as I just glanced quickly at the sewing order!).  As it is right now, I can easily pull it off and on over my head without feeling like I'm a contortionist.

The length of the sleeves was a bit surprising because I normally have to trim off an inch or two on the length. The cut length of the sleeves was where I usually wear my finished length - (again, should have done a muslin first and I would have known this).  After turning up the sleeve hem 1/2",  I added the red band with rick rack to the bottom of the sleeves to make them "appear" a little longer.

I thought about adding a red band to the bottom of the hemline, but I only had 2 inches to spare on the rick rack after adding it to the sleeves, so that was a no-go.

I also added a small bar tack above the slits on the sides.

Next up - The Flint pants by Megan Nielsen  

First off - how cute is the pattern envelope!

I love, love, love these pants!!!  I just can't say enough about them!  A fitted waistline pant with no bulky elastic or zippers is a win, win in my book!

I made the version with the button closure in the front and they are super comfortable.  The fabric is a white linen from the stash of course!  I can see a few more pairs of these in my future = definitely a pair in black and lightweight denim pair would be super cute too!

They have a nice fitted waistband with slanted pockets at the sides.  The pocket on the left (the side with the button closures) is not fully sewn closed which allows you to pull the pants off and on easily.  

I made a size Medium with a few changes:

- Took in 2 inches on the back center seam, tapering the seam down to bubble butt height

- My bubble butt required lengthening the back darts by one inch too

- Took in the sides by 1/4 each side, tapering to the hips

All in all, two successful garments!  I can't say the same for the Sewing Workshop Urban pants though....more to come on that in May MAGAM Part Two!

On with my stashbustin' stats!

Tunic = 2.625 yards

Flint Pants = 2.625 yards

Total YTD = 32.875!

Happy sewing everyone!