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Writer's pictureSharon Prigan

A Patchwork Tunic

Updated: May 23

I purchased this t shirt from Carol Kinney from Highhopesdyesandgift in one of her sales. It is a Gildan 5 xl. I always purchase them large as I can recreate to my specifications and still have lots of pieces left over for either art or fashion accessory projects.



Tie dyed 5xl shirt
Tie tyed 5xl shirt

I had originally thought of creating another tunic like this one https://www.priganart.com/post/t-shirt-tunic but I decided that this time I wanted it to be longer.


I measured and narrowed the sides.


tapering the sides
Tapering the sides

And then started thinking how to extend it. I had thought of using the pieces that I removed from the sides to create a band at the bottom of the shirt. The pieces weren't long enough.



Too short
Too short

So, what I did was cut about 18 cm from the bottom section off and moved it down and would then create some sort of patchwork panel to add above the band at the bottom which had the finished hem already sewn onto it.



Cut off band
Cut off band

I narrowed the bottom piece by about 6 cm on either side.



Narrowed bottom piece
Narrowed bottom piece

And then cut up the side pieces into a random patchwork assemblage.



Random patchwork design
Random pactchwork design

Not bad, but not interesting enough. After sewing the seam allowances, the panel would be even smaller and I didn't have any more of these colors.


I looked carefully at the shirt and saw turquoise, pink, purple, blue and a bit of green, I had those colors in my scrap packets and immediately saw an idea.


To add mosaic art panels to the shirt front and back, to create a longer tunic, and also to add mosaic panels to the sleeves. I cut the sleeves shorter adding additional fabric to the scrap pile.



Choosing colors
Choosing colors

I went to my packets of tie dyed remnants that I have kept from all the shirts that have been recreated. Chose, turquoises, pinks, purples, blues and greens. Cut up a selection of pieces, made color piles and now I had a big enough selection of scraps.



Tie dyed scraps
Tie dyed scraps

I chose purple for my top thread and started sewing.



Purple thread
Purple thread

I needed to sew 4 different sections. 2 for the body of the shirt, front and back and 2 for the sleeves.



Mosaic patchwork
Mosaic patchwork

After sewing the shirt panels I stitched them directly onto the bottom part of the shirt, front and back




Then onto the body of the shirt and stittched the sides up.



Mosaic patchwork panel
Mosaic patchwork panel


I attached the sleeves onto the existing sleeves and closed up the side seams of the tunic.



Mosaic patchwork sleeves
Mosaic patchwork sleeves


I envisioned it with a mosaic cowl collar but that would have meant that it was less versatile and limited only to cooler weather. There is no way to wear a cowl necked tunic in summer in Israel. I wanted to be able to wear it all year round, over leggings in summer and warmer pants with boots and a cowl scarf in winter.



Mosaic panel tunic
Mosaic panel tunic

Here it is with an aubergine colored infinty scarf and it looks perfect.



Tunic and infinity scarf
Tunic and infinity scarf

 

See more tutorials here on etsy


here on the site


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