When I drew this design up, it was supposed to be the wings on a Phoenix. Or the tail. I forget. I drew it at some point last fall (as in over a year ago, fall) when I was watching a football practice. The Boy and one of his little buddies came over to me at one point and his friend was watching me draw, and gave me the thumbs up.
Ah, approval. 🙂
Once I got it scanned in to Photoshop and cleaned up, I played around with it a bit to get this design. I had it made up in a Performance Knit. It is a little thicker than the Performance Piqué. When I sewed the hem, needle marks were showing through. Not a big fan of that, but it may also happen on the Performance Piqué if you have a dark base fabric. The backside is white, so when you go through the fabric with a hem, the white base is showing through the needle marks.
Not a huge deal with the hem, because I really like how these tunics are turning out. It seems like the knit has a little less give in the fabric than the piqué. For the price difference, next time I would go with the piqué over the knit.
The sleeves I made to have some interest with the pleat. I turned the pleat at the middle and then sewed a tribal button on it to give it some interest. The sleeves are made up of a stretch polyester of some sort. The blacks are a little different, but hopefully not too noticeable. I can tell pretty easily in these pictures, but I think it is the flash on my camera and how they reflect light.
Originally I cut the shirt all the way out to the edge of the design, and put in some tucks on the side. That just didn’t look good. I cut it down to have straighter sides. Next time I print up one of my designs I will make sure it prints a little smaller so that it doesn’t get cut at the sides. The tunic took a yard of fabric for the main body, and I just used my stash fabric for the remainder. The Spoonflower fabric is spendy, so I was just trying to make it as affordable as possible.
The fabric for this tunic and the scrollwork one are up for sale if you are interested in them. As a designer I get a little kickback, and so far I think I have made enough to buy one of my Friday morning “coffee” treats. 😉
Pretty! Pretty! Stacy. You are so talented.
Thanks, Shannon! 🙂
Oooh I really like this one! Looks fabulous on too:)
I love the addition of the buttons. Very unique!
Thanks, Michelle! I was trying to think of something interesting to do with the sleeves so they weren’t so plain. Can’t have plain! 😉
I didn’t know you did so much fabric designing! Looks like you’re having fun with it, you’ve made some awesome tops for yourself.
Thanks, Rachel!