Asymmetric Pleated Tunic

This mustard knit has been sat in my stash since a few months before we moved last year. I recovered it from storage last week. It is soooooo stretchy and since I didn’t have the right colour cones for my overlocker, I opted to sew this on my standard machine. One word. Aaaargh! But hey…with the aid of a walking foot and a bit of coaxing I got there. The finish isn’t perfect. But in truth this is very much a toile/prototype of an idea I wanted to try out. So in the context of that…I’m content.

Content enough to want to share, because I think in principle, this idea works.  The concept is essentially an easy way to give a shapeless garment definition through simple gathering. So I started by making a shapeless garment! Two simple rectangles sewn together across the top and sides with holes left open for the head and the arms. Not dissimilar to my pashmina refashion…but with less chalking (!) and plenty of width to play with…literally two rectangles…then neckline and armholes finished then hemmed…

Then I simply pinched out pleats, gathering the excess fabric into one point. Eventually settling on four pleats set off centre just on the lower bust curve. The problem I sometimes have with overly loose tops is that, because I have a largish bust, they have a tendency to hang from the bust point, disguising any shape below the bust and well…just looking a bit “tenty”. Once I’d settled on my arrangement of pleats I simply hand stitched them in place. It provides juuuust enough shaping whilst still allowing me to indulge my love of loose tops!

I could see this being useful for refashioning oversized tops and shirts…..don’t be surprised if you see this technique pop up again basically!