The Tiny Tunic

Since it's now 2019, I think it's safe to say definitively that leggings and skinny jeans have defined the current decade. I was a little slow to warm up to both of them, but once I figured out how to wear them tucked into boots, I became much more of a fan. In the past year, I've more than doubled my collection of leggings (thanks, in great part, to my boyfriend, who came home from shopping one day this November with a bag full of 6 pairs of fleece-lined leggings in various colors and patterns). 

But new clothes beget more new clothes, and having all these leggings around means I have been feeling the need for a greater variety of tunic-length tops to wear over them. Just my luck—a friend donated some old clothes to me this summer, one of which was none other than this tunic-length top!

The length was just what I needed, but the width, alas, just wasn't sufficient for my body type. The bottom half was too narrow at the hem and gave me an unflattering bubble butt, while my shoulders were about to bust the buttons on top! Fortunately, I had fixes for both.

To make it flow more smoothly over my hips, I gave it two side vents, unstitching the side seams to the top of my hipbone. I did the old zigzag-overlock-and-stitch-down to finish the edges of these vents (i.e. they're not really very finished and I'll probably have to do them again after a wash or two!).

The fix for the top half was even simpler—I just wear it unbuttoned! This necessitates a tank top underneath, but so do the side vents, so it all works out.

One more last-minute finishing touch remained! The tunic has roll-tab sleeves, which are cute in theory, but in practice, it's January, and I want as much arm coverage as I can get! When I wore the sleeves at their full length, the tab kept hanging out and driving me nuts! 

 

In five minutes, I hand-sewed a tiny button to the inside of each cuff (right next to where the visible outside button is attached) so that I could hold the tab in place and out of sight.

My first outfit featuring the newly remodeled tunic coincided with a rare in-person "sort-of client meeting" at work, so I decided to keep my color scheme subtle and inoffensive. I wore dark green skinny jeans and slightly lighter green wedge boots, and a matching set of dark green jewelry.

I'm excited that the tunic is such a neutral color, because I'm looking forward to pairing it with many more colorful pairs of leggings in the future!