Handkerchief Tunic

Self Drafted Tunic Pattern

If you followed me on Instagram, back when I was on it, you might have seen me working on this tunic top. I thought I should write a brief post outlining how it came to be.

Sometime last year I purchased this soft gray knit fabric. It's a medium weight knit, a bit see through, and has moderate stretch. Originally I had intended to make a deep-v wrap top with it but within months of purchasing this material I ended up buying the shirt that I wanted to make from a thrift store. As a result this fabric ended up in my stash bin until the following winter. In January I was on a pretty steady sewing kick and pumping out projects one after another, that's when I thought it's time to utilize this fabric, but how? I purchased Restyle's "Acid Geometry Leggings" shortly after Christmas (pictured in photo above, product review to come), I knew that I would I need to make a tunic that I could wear with them. I never wear leggings without tunics, I just can't deal with the muffin top or the camel toe!

Recently I've been working on a knit sloper that I purchased from Burda (link here). I finally got the fit just right and decided that I would make a tunic based off of my sloper. I'm not sure exactly where the inspiration for the handkerchief hem came from. I guess I had seen it once or twice in goth clothing catalogs and I fondly remember owning a beautifully draped handkerchief skirt that really complimented my figure. Despite owning a pattern drafting text book there was nothing in it about handkerchief hems which completely surprised me. Much like circle or dirndl skirts, the handkerchief skirt is one of the most common DIY projects in the world of sewing. You can literally find hundreds of tutorials on them and various ways to make them. Typically, a handkerchief skirt is made from a square that has been draped, it's not unlike a circle skirt, other than by shape of course, and like a circle skirt you can choose to drape it from the waist line or hips. 

While you can easily google a handkerchief skirt, a tunic tutorial is not so commonplace. There are some tunic patterns that have you cut the top as a separate piece, you would then attach a handkerchief skirt at the waist line or under bust. While that does work, I don't like the idea of having a bust or waistline seam. I wanted something more streamlined and with fewer pieces. That's when I found McCall's 6121 pattern diagram.

Pictured on the left above is my fashion sketch of what I wanted my tunic to look like. On the right is a snippet from McCall's 6121 pattern diagrams. Now, while I would generally recommend against trying to understand pattern drafting from the back of a pattern envelope, this is, for once, actually very helpful. McCall's is showing us precisely how the draping handkerchief hemline is created. It is a rectangular extension that's blended into the waistline.

To accomplish this on my own sloper I determined the length that I wanted for the skirt, calculated what that would be as a square, and then halved it, drafted those measurements into a rectangle attached to the sloper at the hip line and blended it. If I had tried to blend it at the waist I would lose definition and the tunic would be more drapey, I wanted to maintain that waist definition so I dropped the extension to the hips which I saw one other sewist do on another site. 

It is mind numbingly easy.

I have used this exact pattern to create a dress which I can't take pictures of until the weather warms up, but I can tell you that these two garments are the most comfortable garments I own. They are so completely flattering and my sewing ended up looking top notch. 

If you struggle with figure flaws I would definitely recommend giving this style a try, whether you draft your own patterns or buy them (try McCall's 6121 if you like). I'm super happy with how this turned out and I look forward to eventually sharing the dress as well.

-Lu