Sewing: Grey Linen Tunic

Despite the fact that I resolved in January to try to do more pottery, what I've been in the mood for lately is sewing. I'm still under a fabric-buying embargo, so when the sewing mood is upon me, I try to think of projects that can be made from fabric I already own. My stash is predominantly a mixture of velvet/satin/taffeta and linen. The fancy fabrics were great when I was going to the Riverside Dickens Fest every year, but less great in the UK where I don't go to any Victorian events. So that leaves linen. I have three pieces of linen in my stash that are destined to become tunics or tunic-dresses. I enjoy making tunics because they're easy, comfortable, and can do double duty as SCA garb and (slightly eccentric) weekend lounge/casual wear.


My favorite tunic pattern, which I used for my black herringbone tunic, looks like this:

I think this pattern was traditionally used more in Russia and the Middle East than in Europe, but it's comfortable, easy to make, looks less weird to the modern eye than European medieval tunics, but still passes the "looks good from ten paces" test. At the moment, my sewing room is a bit of a shambles, such that it's actually easier (if slower) to hand-sew the tunic than to find a place for all of the boxes that have been stacked on top of my treadle sewing machine. As a small bonus, sewing the tunic by hand means that I can use the linen thread that I bought from Herts Fabrics. Linen thread needs to be waxed before use, so it can't be used in a sewing machine.

Weekend 1 was spent measuring and cutting out the pieces. I was able to cut this tunic from a 56" x 66" of linen left over from my wedding clothes, with a strip of around 8" x 30" to spare, which I can use to make caps, appliqué or patches for mending later. I know from having made other things from this particular piece of linen that it's relatively poor quality, in that the fibers are loosely twisted and tear easily, and that it's loosely woven and notoriously difficult to keep on the straight of grain. The upside, however, is that it drapes really nicely, so I simply won't devote a lot of time to fancy decoration, and I'm prepared to do some mending over the life of the tunic. In order to ensure that I cut out the rectangular pattern pieces on the straight grain, I used the technique of pulling out a thread and cutting along the resulting line. Because I know that the threads are under-twisted and prone to breaking, and that linen is stronger when wet, I licked my fingers and twisted the thread as I pulled it so that I could pull the thread for longer before it broke.

Stitching down the seam allowances
on the shoulder seam.

Once all of the pieces were cut out, The first step was to make the neck opening. I Stitched the two body pieces together across the shoulders to make one long body piece, pressed the seam allowances open with my fingers, folded the raw edges under, and then whip-stitched them down, making a neat, flat seam. By sheer luck, my thread is a perfect color match for my fabric, so the whip stitching is almost invisible from the outside. (And it's a good thing too, since I'll almost certainly need to do some darning repairs with it later.)


Once the shoulder seam was finished, I drew the neck opening on my neck facing piece. I started by drawing a vertical line running down the center of the facing, and a horizontal line where the shoulder seam would be. For me, a comfortable neck opening is 7" across and 5" front to back. I marked 3.5" from center in either direction on the shoulder line, then 2" up and 3" down from the shoulder line along the center line. I sketched in a gentle curve connecting the dots on one side using my chalk liner, folded the facing piece along the center line, gave it a few pats so that the chalk dust would transfer to the other side, and unfolded it to reveal a neat, perfectly symmetrical oval. I traced over it with some more chalk to make it easier to see, marked a 6" keyhole opening down the center front, and then marked stitching lines 1/8" to either side of the keyhole slit as stitching guides, coming to a point at the bottom.

Drawing the neck facing piece. The squares in the lower
corners will be the underarm gussets.

I pinned the neck facing to the body, right side of facing to wrong side of body, creasing the body piece down the middle to line it up with the center line on my facing, and lining up my shoulder line on the facing with the shoulder seam on the body. Using the smallest stitches I could manage, I stitched along the lines I'd marked.

Positioning the neck facing on the body, lining it up with the
shoulder seams.

Once the neck opening was stitched, I marked a seam allowance around the inside of the neck opening and cut it out. I also trimmed the facing to an even 2" around the opening. I could have done this before stitching, but I find it easier to keep the facing on the straight grain while it's intact, and frays less this way.

The neckline stitched, facing trimmed to size, and seam
allowances clipped.

Next, I cut along my seam allowance lines and down the center of the keyhole slit, getting as close to the point of the slit as possible without clipping my stitching thread. I clipped the seam allowance around the neck opening, staggering the clips on each layer of fabric so that they wouldn't make a pronounced ridge when turned and pressed.

Seam allowances turned under about 3/8" and pinned without mercy.

I then turned the neck facing to the outside and pressed it flat, giving me a neat, clean neck opening. I then folded under a narrow seam allowance on the outside edge of the neck facing, pinned it within an inch of its life, and then whip-stitched that down.

Everything whip-stitched down neatly.

Behold my awesome stitching power!

With the neckline done, the rest is just straight seams, which happened on weekend 2. For all of the construction seams, I use a mixture of running stitch and back stitch. Basically, I load up the needle with 3-5 small stitches, each one catching just a couple of threads, and pull it through. Then, when placing the needle for the next group of stitches, I go back one stitch. Effectively, every third, fourth, or fifth stitch is a backstitch, which makes for a seam that won't unravel easily even if the thread breaks. On areas like the underarm gussets that will take more strain, I space the backstitches more closely, about every 2-3 stitches. On seams that won't take much strain, I space them farther apart, every 4-5 stitches.

Loading the needle with running stitches, with one back stitch
at the beginning.

I first stitched the underarm gusset to the two side pieces, and then stitched the sleeve to the side-and-gusset. I then clipped the seam allowances on one side, folding the other side over it to enclose the raw edges, and whip stitched them down (i.e. felling the seams).

The underarm gusset is attached first into the side pieces,

then the sleeve.

After that, I lined up the top/centre of the sleeve pieces with the shoulder seam on the body piece, and stitched those together, felling the seam afterwards. The last step of construction was to hem the sleeves and bottom of the tunic, and voila! A wearable, fray-proof tunic!


In all, this 100% hand-sewn project took me three weekends to finish: one weekend to measure and cut out the pieces and stitch the neck opening, one to assemble the sides/sleeves, and one to attach the sides to the body and hem everything.