Devon Baer Inspired Tunic

Have you ever seen something and wish you had the sewing pattern for? This happens to me a lot, especially looking at Pinterest and other websites. As I was looking around I saw this....

Honestly, I did not know where the ruffle collar shirt came from or who had designed the tunic. It was a picture I had found on Pinterest that did not have a link, I researched the image and found a boutique that sold the ruffle tunic called Devon Baer. These are beautiful tunics in bright gorgeous colors, ready for a day at the beach or on a boat. I loved looking at Devon Haire's designs and her online Boutique. It looks like she started at Etsy and expanded to her own shop. Next, I started to look for a similar sewing patterns. I wanted to make my own ruffle collar shirt. Of course the pattern was not available.

So what did I do next? I looked through all of my sewing books and found Built by Wendy Dress book. This book has 3 style of dresses; the sheath dress, shift dress and dirndl dress. The pattern templates do not have seam allowances but that is so that you can create more designs with them.

I used the shift dress template because it matched the overall shape of the shirt. Then I copied the template to a large piece of paper, adding a 1/2" seam allowance.  On the fold line, I cut the collar 6" down from the top and 1" wide across, so the 1" is doubled to 2" on the fold. I did have to make adjustments when sewing the collar into the shirt.  If I make this again I will probably make the ruffle a little wider.  I cut a 4" X 44" ruffle, folded it wrong sides together (hotdog style) and pressed it. Then I used a gather stitch so I could easily gather the raw edge side. The hardest part about making this shirt was figuring out how to sew in the ruffle collar. It is really a placket. I sewed the ruffle to the neck line first. I decided to bind it because if the ruffle turns out, then you would see the rough edge. I also used this placket tutorial from Indie Sew, mostly step #5, joining the plackets at the bottom.  Finally, I topstitched around the entire collar. The shift dress does have a dart and I did not create a dart in my shirt. (My second attempt, I might try it with the dart.)

My sleeves were too short, so after washing it, I decided to remove the sleeves and have a sleeveless shirt. After making the tunic I went back to my original paper pattern pieces and made adjustments.

I can't believe I made this cute shirt. I will have to try it again. I definitely think Devon Baer's shirts are 100% better, but I have learned a lot trying to create my own. 

Happy Sewing!