Moonlight LDT Dress

There is a tendency each summer for me, to sew identical clothes, which I feel lacking in my wardrobe in a particular point of time. Some years it was Rhapsodies, last year it was yoke tunics, this year its wide short viscose dresses. The latter is no wonder, given the unusual high temperatures we've been having for a second month already.

So, after I finished my last LDT short dress, which I absolutely love to wear, I remembered a piece of fabric I was left with after finishing my mother's nightgown. It is super soft, super tender to the skin viscose knit fabric, which felt perfect for a casual lounge dress.

I used again the LDT, short dress length, the smallest size, which, given how huge American sizing is, is enormous on me. However that was exactly what I was looking for in these hot days. I fidgeted a bit with the shoulders and the arm openings, as the original tank top upper part of the dress is too cut out for my taste. The alternative design, however, intended for sleeves, is too wide - in the end I cut something in between with 6.5 wide shoulders. Next time I might even go to 6 cm wide, or alternatively, use again the tank top version, but with armhole bands.

Pattern: Laundry Day Tee

Size: XS

Fabric: viscose knit

Time to make: 3 days

Do I have now enough short viscose dresses for this summer? IDK, I might need just one more :)

Bright Red Tunic

Last year I made three LDT tunics to be worn with leggings and I still love them and wear them a lot. However, summer this year is so hot, that I found that I prefer a longer tunic to be worn like a short dress without any shorts or leggings. I took out my old LDT dress, now much faded and worn out and came to the conclusion, that I would like something similar out of cotton/viscose knit, but without the sleeves.

I was planning a trip to the fabric shop, but I remembered, that I had a fairly large remnant of cotton-viscose fabric from the T-shirt I made for my husband last summer. As l liked the idea of color combos, with which I experimented in these tunics, I found some matching colorful remnant from this blouse  and I am totally in love with the way these two work together.

I chose the tank top version of the Laundry Day Tee, with the added 3 cm wide armhole bands. It seemed to me, that the wider bands kind of brought the two fabrics better together, but I might be wrong. I'm planning a second short dress out of fabric remnants and I'm going to experiment with narrow finishing bands, so we'll see.

Pattern: Laundry Day Tee

Size: XS

Fabric: bright red cotton-viscose knit and cotton knit

Time to make: 5 days

As my piece of fabric was wide but short, I had to cut the back at the same length as the front. I didn't have enough flowery fabric for the back yoke, so I cut it out of the main fabric. I think it works perfectly like that, with the flower accent at the front and the solid back.

I spent the whole day today working from home in this short dress and I can tell you - it's a winner for the hot days :)

Third Red Wine Tunic

It's been two months (!!!) since my last make! It was another tunic, my favourite piece of clothing this summer, that I am wearing right now. I'm sure quite soon after I finished it I found out, that a tunic, made out of ITY, was the perfect lounge-ware in the heat and I took out my last pieces of wine red ITY and other scraps of knit fabric and concocted this pink and red combination.

And then - then life happened. I took another commission this summer, Gaby and her boyfriend visited us and we traveled across the country, then this, and that, and the other, and the sewing project I had started just stayed in an unfinished phase for two months.

Until I took it out two days ago and finally finished it. My hands itch for sewing and I plan to gradually return to it. Yesterday I bought the new Burda Style issue in German and today I bought a very detailed online course for blouse 124 of Burda 03 /2021 (22 video instruction lessons plus the pattern). I love sewing video tutorials and one learns so much about the small and refined details that go into making good quality clothing. Watching the making of this blouse is more enthralling to me than a crime show :)))

Pattern: Laundry Day Tee

Size: XS

Fabric: wine ITY (100% polyester) and cotton knit

Time to make: NA

Notes: This is the regular LDT, without the sleeves. I did not like the cut of the tank top version around the armholes, so for my third tunic I chose the regular pattern, but took in the shoulders by 3.5 cm. I also shortened the back yoke by 2 cm in length, as I didn't want the armholes to be too gaping under the arms. I still haven't worn it and I don't know if my modifications were good, but judging by the success of my tunic number II, I'm sure this iteration will get a lot of wear next summer. 

And yes, as this tunic was made out of scraps, it has a seam at the back. But, as I recently heard, a good master never lets good fabric go to waste :) I don't mind the seam and I make these tunics for wearing at home, so I am happy I put my scraps to use.

One More Wine Red Tunic

And because I was in the mood and had red thread on the overlocker and my Laundry Day Tee pattern out and still plenty of fabric, I made another Wine Red Tunic out of the same tandem of fabrics, this time reversed - striped top and solid bottom.

 

I also opted for the tank top cut of the LDT - I had actually never tried it before. I found it a bit too much cut out at the front - I prefer my tank tops more covering around the arms area. I had intended to make the tunic without armbands, but I did not like the way the tunic gaped, so in the end I added 3 cm solid bands.

I also tried to add a small feature to one of the shoulder straps, making it in solid fabric, but I don't think it shows that much. It might even look like a defect rather than the intended effect, but I'm not at all bothered by it, so whatever.

Pattern: Laundry Day Tee

Size: XS

Fabric: wine ITY (100% polyester) and striped cotton-viscose knit

Time to make: 3 days

I have still quite a piece of the solid color ITY fabric, but I think I'm done with Laundry Day Tunics for now. It could be good for a small light top with spaghetti straps, probably because it's rather hot recently and spaghetti straps are all I can think of right now :) However, I'm so busy, that I doubt I'll have the time to whip up a new top any time soon.

Wine Red Tunic

My latest make - a new tunic for myself. This summer I'm totally into tunics and calf-length yoga pants. 

The pattern is Laundry Day Tunic, with modified kimono sleeves, cut at tunic length. This is actually almost a repeat of another tunic out of small pieces of fabric I made two years ago and still love and wear all summer long.

Last year I made a striped longsleeve and I had a decent piece of fabric left. I had immediately the idea to make it into a mixed solid color and stripes tunic. I even had very small remnants of an ITY in wine red, that matched the striped viscose perfectly, but unfortunately I didn't have enough of it and there was no more in the shop (they actually closed that shop entirely).

However, the idea kept haunting me and I would regularly check for suitable wine colored knit fabric in the shops I frequent, until I recently came upon the perfect ITY match. And I know, it does sound a bit like having a button and buying materials to make a coat to match it, but sometimes this works too :)

 

Pattern: Laundry Day Tee

Size: XS

Fabric: wine ITY (100% polyester) and striped cotton-viscose knit

Time to make: 2 days

Now, that I made the new tunic, I am constantly juggling ideas in my head for other similar tunics too - I just can't get enough of them, they are so comfy!

Striped Tunic

One more tunic in my wardrobe! This is a modified Laundry Day Tee by Love Notions, with added kimono sleeves and color blocking, tunic length.

Initially I wanted just another tee, but it turned out that my piece of diagonally striped cotton knit was only 50 cm long and would barely produce a cropped tee. I sat on the project for two days and finally decided to color block it. However, I didn't want to lose any of the striped fabric, so - it had to be a tunic. And it occurred to me that I liked a lot the curves of the LDT, so I turned it in a color blocked kimono sleeved tunic.

The black fabric was a serendipitous newcomer to my stash - a few days previously I had bought it for a dress version of Burda #114 06/2021 and it married the striped fabric perfectly. I risked to cut the upper part of the tunic from the black fabric before cutting the dress, but I had just enough for both projects.

 

Pattern: Laundry Day Tee

Size: XS

Fabric: black ITY (100% polyester) and striped cotton knit (100% cotton)

Time to make: 2 days

I didn't even try to match the stripes at the sides, as because of the curve of the cut and the diagonal placement of the stripes such matching would have been impossible anyway.

 Now all I need is a new pair of black(er) jeans and a new haircut :)

Laundry Day Tee Dress

One more Laundry Day Tee, a Love Notion's pattern - my third this year. I love this pattern for home, as it is roomy, comfy and easy to wear. Unlike my previous two winter LDT tunics, I didn't add pockets to my summer dress, mostly because the fabric is quite stretchy viscose knit and I didn't want to deform and add bulk to it with pockets.

This LDT is my third clothing item out of this knit (I also made a long sleeve and a short sleeve T-shirts out of it, and a pair of underwear) and I am kind of bored with it already. I wonder what other sewists do with big pieces of fabric.

As for the pattern - I made again size XS, sewed the dress with zigzag stitch length 3 depth 1, secured the raw edges again with zigzag stitch length 2.5 depth 5 and hemmed the dress and the sleeves with double needle, carefully catching the raw edge between the two needles.

Red Laundry Day Tee

My purple Laundry Day Tunic turned out to be so comfortable, one of my most successful makes so far, that I had to make another one. I bought a piece of red-orange very stretchy knit, about 1.20 m and basically made the same tunic, with long sleeves. The fabric, being more stretchy, was a bit more difficult to work with and is not as flattering as the purple tunic, but it is divinely comfortable - like staying in your PJs.

 As I work from home and spend a lot of time in tunics and yoga pants, I really need these kinds of clothes more than my "out in the world" clothes, so I think there'll be even more pieces of this kind.

Ah, and I did add pockets again. Funny thing, I keep my hands in my pockets only when I'm posing for a photo, but still - I insist on pockets in my leisure wear :)

Look at the amount of snow we got during these last two days. It's unbelievable it was 20C on Tuesday!

Laundry Day Tunic

I'm so proud of my new tunic, made out of 94 cm of knit fabric. The pattern is Laundry Day Tee by Love Notions, a free pattern for members of their FB group and I believe very popular among sewists worldwide. The pattern is so professionally made, that I couldn't recommend it enough - it has layers for the different sizes and the size range is very wide - from XS to 5X. The pages are no-trim - brilliant and so easy to connect, and there are versions of the elements of the pattern, so that combining different lengths, sleeves and necklines one could get quite different garments out of this one pattern.

I chose the XS size, as the pattern instructs you to chose according to your bust size; tunic length, round neckline and 3/4 sleeves. My modifications - I added cuffs to the sleeves and pockets. Gaby has a similar RTW knit dress with pockets and I was passionate I wanted pockets in my tunic too :)

My fabric is very soft medium weight knit with 60% stretch width-wise and almost 0% stretch length-wise - perfect for a dress and very easy to sew.

As I had very little quantity of fabric, I decided to compromise in order to be able to have sleeves and pockets - I made the back with a seam. In the original both the front and the back are seamless, but that would have meant that I wouldn't have been able to harvest the sleeves from the remaining fabric. As my selvedges were very neat and narrow, it was easy to sew them together and I didn't even had to zigzag them.
I'm truly pleased with this little tunic and I've already bought two more knit fabrics for more knit tunics and dresses.