the breezy tee tunic | free sewing pattern

It’s still cold here, but we’ve seen a few hints of spring this past week, so I decided to celebrate with a new short sleeve top. I made a tunic that’s long enough to wear with leggings, because I’m sure we have plenty of boots and cardigan weather still ahead. I used my free breezy tee pattern (available in size L) with just a few adjustments to make a tunic instead of a tee.

The fabric is peach skin, which I really love. It’s soft and silky and lightweight, but doesn’t wrinkle and isn’t too hard to sew with, as far as silky fabrics go. Combined with the roomy cut of the breezy tee pattern, it skims past all my problem areas without looking bulky.

I started with the free breezy tee pattern, which you can download from this post. I used one yard of 55-60 inch wide fabric, prewashed.

When cutting out the pattern, I made a couple of adjustments, which you can see below. First, I lengthened the hem by 8-9 inches (so that I used the full yard of fabric), and then curve the hem up at the side seam. Also, I lowered the arm hole by about an inch and a half. Since peach skin isn’t stretch, I want to make sure there was plenty of room around my arms. I probably didn’t actually need to add that much but it turned out fine. Also, I did not use either the pocket or sleeve pieces.

You’ll cut out two pieces, both on the fold: one with the front neckline and one with the back neckline. The construction is simple. Just place the pieces right sides together and sew along both shoulder seams, then sew down both side seams. (You can read this post for more photos of the process; just remember I didn’t use the sleeve piece here.)

I turned the ends of the sleeves under 1/4 inch twice and hemmed with a straight stitch. I did the same for the bottom of the tunic. It ends up looking longer in the back, as you can see here:

Then I made a bit of bias tape from fabric scraps and bound the neckline. Try the shirt on before binding the neckline to make sure it fits over your head comfortably. I did not have to enlarge it.

And that’s it!

Now, one last thing to note is that I’m a smaller chested gal, so the face that this blouse doesn’t have darts isn’t a problem (especially because I used such a free flowing fabric). However, if you are larger chested I cannot guarantee if this will work as well for you. I’d try it in an inexpensive fabric first just to make sure you like the fit.