Tunic Bible Knit Tunic

Here is another tunic dress from The Tunic Bible by Sarah Gunn and Julie Starr. I loved my first dress I made from this pattern so I had to make another. I originally intended to make this dress with a neckline totally different than my first dress, but in the end I decided to go with the wide-split placket and angled collar again because I thought it would show off the trim best. I made the dress in an XS. The directions state to size-down if using a knit, but XS is the smallest in the size range so I just took in as I needed to get the fit right. 

The fabric is the Leggero ponte by Telio. It is a rayon blend light-to-medium ponte with great recovery. I purchased it from Fabric.com last year, but they are currently sold out. I found the silver sari lace trim on Etsy. If you are looking for something similar, try searching for “sari trim” or “sari lace”. There are literally thousands of beautiful embroidered and crocheted trims in this category and most are very affordable. I did notice that the trim shrank significantly when exposed to steam. I’m not sure if most crocheted metallic trims do this, but it is something to keep in mind. Unfortunately, I noticed this after I had applied the trim to the collar and before I sewed the collar on. So the collar didn’t fit right in the neckline due to the shrinkage. It also created some drag lines from the high shoulder point to the armpit, but I still love the dress.

I used the same crochet trim at the neckline and hem of the dress, but I removed the scalloped side of the trim to get a different look at the bottom of the dress. You can see me unravel the trim on my instagram post here. I love that I get a cohesive look without buying two different trims!

To get the perfect placement of the trim at the bottom of the dress, I marked 3/8″ away from the edge of the fabric at the hem using chalk and hand basted the trim to the dress. I then pressed the trim to get perfectly crisp mitered corners before I sewed the trim down on either side using a straight stitch on my machine.

I have plans to make another dress from this pattern in linen, hopefully I can get that done by the end of the summer.