Designing Your Tunic
The body of a shirt is a long rectangle.
This tunic will be a square or rectangular. My inspiration to make these tunics came from years of studying and making 18th-century linen garments such as shirts and shifts. These garments are made from geometry and the shirt body is just one big rectangle. The construction methods I teach are taken from how these garments were sewn together using small hems and narrow flat-felled seams.
The width and length of the finished tunic will be determined by 1) your measurements 2) the style you want 3) the amount of fabric you have. I would recommend drawing out your design first with measurements on the template I have provided.
Ask yourself:
How long do you want it? waist? high hip? mid-hip? mid-thigh?
How wide is my fabric? How much yardage do I have?
What neck-line do you want? V-neck? Rounded neck? Boat neck?
How full do you want it?
How far off your shoulders do you want the shoulders to hit?
Do you want the grain line to go around the body or up and down the body?
Here are three examples of styles you can make. (PS. there are way more but these are three I have made and can share with you.) Read in the caption of each example to learn more about the design details and watch the video below. Grab a paper and pencil and sketch out your ideas and measurements.
For the blue striped cotton tunic I let the yardage dictate the design versus my measurements. I had 1 yard and played around with folding it so that the straight of grain went down the body and the grain line going around the body. I decided to have the selvedge run around the hemline and have the grain go across the body. This meant the body would be full and the hem would hit at hip level. I decided to cut off 4” (10 cm) of width to use for ties if I wanted them later on. To minimize waist I embraced the drop shoulder and the fullness of the body. The shoulder is on the fold with two sides seams. The cut dimensions of the body when laid flat are 32” (80 cm) wide by 23” (57.5 cm) long. I was inspired by the neckline of shifts for the neckline. The neck line was cut down 5.5” (13.75 cm) on the front neck and .5” (1.25 cm) for the back neck. The opening was cut at 8.5” (21.25 cm). The arm openings are 9” (22.5 cm) deep.
This white linen tunic was designed with the width of the fabric in mind. The fabric from selvedge to selvedge is 56” wide (140 cm). The tunic is cut with one side seam and a fold where a side seam would be. The shoulders are seamed together over the shoulder. Taking into consideration the widest part of my body is 47” (117.5 cm) this gave me 11” (27.5 cm) of ease and meant the finished width would be 27.5” (82.5 cm) when laid flat. Thinking of the finished width was important because that dictated how far off the shoulder the fabric would hit or how much of a drop sleeve I would have. Since my shoulders from outer shoulder to outer shoulder measure 17” (42.5 cm) that gave about a 5 inch (12.5 cm) sleeve. I only had 1 yard of the material and realized I could incorporate the selvedges into the design to maximize the width. Even though I had 36” (90cm) in length I cut the length of the body at 30” (76” cm) because that was how long I wanted it to be. The width of the body is 27.5” (82.5 cm). The arm openings are 8.5” (21.5 cm) deep.
This pink and white striped top was designed based on the amount of fabric I had left over from a project. It turned out I had enough for it to be a closer fitting top. This, in turn, dictated the length of the top. Because it is closely fitted the width of the tunic would not go over my hips and therefore ended up ending at my upper hip. The width of the body when laid flat is 22” (55cm) and the length is 18.5” (46.25 cm). I chose a v-neck because I think that is flattering for my face. The neck dimension is 8.5” (21.25 cm) wide with the front neck opening is cut 6” (15 cm) deep and the back neck opening is cut 1.5” (3.75 cm) deep. I free-hand drew the rounded-v-neck. The shoulder is on the fold with two sides seams.