Continuing the ANH IN Tunic Tutorial

First off, I want to let everyone know that my emotions are all over the place.  Tuesday at 9:30am I helped my vet release my beloved Smokey from her pain.  She is now over the Rainbow Bridge playing with all her friends in heaven as only cats can.  RIP my “Little Girl”.  Mommy wuvs you.



And we’re now back to this tutorial as promised.  Give me a couple weeks to finish (I hope).   I can dedicate a little more time for this project.

We left off with the front panel of the tunic, and now we’ll add the right side and inner panel. 

First, lay out the front panel with L on the left.  Measure the long raw edge of R. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now cut a rectangle the same length as the measured R side and 9-10 inches in width (or more, depending on your girth).  Then whatever method you choose (I used an old shirt pattern) draw the armhole and width of side.  You’ll have to fudge with this so the front panel folds over the inner panel properly (it will become clearer later).  Label this piece RS.
 

Sew RS to R along the long edges.  (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the end result.)

 

We’ll now set this piece aside and go onto the inner panel.  This is basically the exact same inner panel as the IOC uniform, but without the dosimeter pockets.  The piece looks like this.

Never mind the black threads, I have used this piece in a couple officer uniforms.  Notice the pinned area towards the top.  Normally this is where the dosimeter pockets are but I’ve pinned them shut.  Tip:  make sure the short edge of this piece is the same length as the short raw edge of RS.  There are several websites that will show you how to measure for armholes (or use and old shirt pattern just for the armhole measurement like I did).  The best way I can describe this piece is to go to ChazTorad’s tutorial as mentioned on the first post.  Remember to take out the dosimeter pockets as the whole piece should be flat (thus my pinning the pockets close).  If you have difficulty visualizing this please pm me and I’ll try to walk you through it.  This piece will be behind the front panel (again, it will become clearer later).

We’ll now move onto the skirt sections for these two panels.  Sorry to do this to you, but you’ll probably need to take apart the front panel if you’ve sewn it together, or unpin if you pinned it together.  We’ll start with the front panel skirt.  Here are the total pieces of front panel and front skirt.

You’ll be cutting four rectangles the same width as the front panel pieces.  The length will be about mid-thigh.  Keep checking in the mirror for correct length as you build this section, checking with reference pictures.  You don’t want it waist high or an evening gown.  It’s kind of an attached mini-skirt (very mini).  Give yourself at least an inch to the length for hemming (more if you want to experiment a little).

Now, align the skirt strips with the panel strips as shown above.  If you have any quilting experience you’ll understand the next step.  It’s basically what we quilters call strip sewing.  Sew the skirt strip to L, then skirt strip to M, skirt strip to R, and skirt strip to RS.  You now should have four long strips that look like this.

 

 

Now, sew L to M, M to R, R to RS all the way down the long edges.  Of course, once again (I think that’s twice) in my haste I forgot to take an end result picture, but I think you got the idea.

For the inner panel, use ChazTorad’s tutorial once again.  If you already have an officer uniform it will be the same.  I can’t remember if his tutorial has the same small flap that extends, or if I came up with it, but there is an extended flap about two inches (allows for hemming and/or lining)  for the waist snap. 

Tip:  this part of the skirt flares out a bit but not too much.  You’ll have to fudge with this to see what works for you.  I have what I think is a nicely rounded butt, so I had to make this part fit over it (yeah, I’ll call it fat butt, it doesn’t bother me).  You might not have so much of a flare, or maybe a little more.  Whatever you do, don’t make a square dance swing skirt out of it.  The skirt should just barely lay flat on your body with just enough flare for walking without binding.   Again, keep checking yourself in the mirror and compare to reference pictures.   We just call it a skirt for easy reference, but it’s really an extension of the panel.

 

You now have front panel and inner panel with skirt sections done.  Between the two will be the back section, which we will discuss in the next post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEXT:  We’ll move onto the back, side seams, and back skirt sections.  I do want to remind everybody that once you have all this sewn with muslin and fitted just right, you’ll have to take out the seam ripper and take it all apart.  These will become your pattern pieces, so don’t cut your black gabardine fabric yet until we’ve gone through the tutorial with muslin.   

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka (cuddling with teddy bears because she misses her Smokey)