Sage and Decay...

toward the end of February.

~ Welcome to my garden ~

~ I'm wearing a Tina Givens Olivia tunic pattern that strayed...  ~

when I made it way too small, like baby-doll small.  I had to cut it in half, straight up the center front and center back, to make room for some other possibilities.   I like how it turned out though.

Using what fabric scraps I had left, I did things I wouldn't have thought of otherwise.

~ like adding a 12" wide strip of fabric down the back ~

with a large center box pleat at the neckline.

Since I had cut out all the original pattern pieces at the start, I had the minimum of leftovers to play with.

~ this is what I come up with for the front ~

I only had one piece 10" wide that was 3/4 of the length of the front part of the tunic.  And 2 smaller pieces of that width that tapered off into odd shaped triangles.  I used those for the upper part and then let them wrap around the neckline and shoulders however they may.  voila.  You can see the back of the "collar" in the back view.  Pretty cool, huh?

~ the side view gathers and cuts are from the original pattern ~

~ as is that big ole pocket ~

I did add the draw string to tighten it up a bit, and the sleeve cuffs. What looks like faded flannel, is actually a very light-weight knit.

That bit of black ruffle you can see peaking out is from an organza camisole I made ages ago.

The silk dupioni harem pants are a deviation from Sandra Betzina's Vogue 1355 that you can see me wearing here.


And finally, the grand finale

~  my Trippens from ebay ~

I'm running on over to Patti's and the Visibles at Not Dead Yet Style before it's too late.  Then Catherine's I Will Wear What I Like and Cherie's Shoe and Tell.  Hope to see you all there!