Where's the Pattern?

This is one of my catch up posts from my hiatus from the blog.  I've always loved Burda patterns. They had European details and fit and they didn't have seem allowances which I also loved. They also fit like no other commercial patterns.  Sometime during the 90's (I believe) they were purchased by Simplicity.  Seam allowances were added and they took on the qualities of the other American pattern companies which I wasn't particularly fond of.  Oh well.  It was nice while it lasted.  It was a few years later that I discovered Burda Style Magazine which contained patterns that retained all of the qualities I loved about the original Burda patterns.

While thumbing through this issue at G-Street Fabrics one day, I came across this pic:

I fell in love with this tunic.  There's just so much to love about it.  It has girlie details like the pleats, lace and crocheted flowers.  The white gives it a nice clean airy look and it's long enough to cover all of my figure flaws.  I purchased some slightly off white Swiss batiste and set out to make this.

Opening the pattern sheet was like playing "Where's Waldo."  All the patterns are on one sheet overlapping with each pattern having different colored lines and each size of the multi-sized patterns having different styled lines.  It made me want to go blind!

I think tracing the pattern was the worst part but I came up with this which was a big improvement.

As is so often the case, I had to make certain changes.  This pattern had a side zipper which I dislike so I moved that to the center back.  I also decided to add the crocheted lace to the hemline.

The tunic went together smoothly but the real challenge was creating crocheted flowers that I liked.  I first looked for doilies that I could take apart but didn't find anything that I liked.  So I found a book of crocheted flowers.   The sizes of crochet thread at the craft/ yarn stores had gauges that were either too big or too small and the colors were either too light or too dark.  Fortunately I found a size online that was right between the two sizes in the stores and a lighter off white.  It was perfect.  Honestly, I don't know how I ever managed before having the internet at my disposal!

I was pleased with the final result which you can see here.

This has become one of my favorite summer pieces!