Making a Tunic (Fierce Deity Link)

Materials:

• 2 Yards of Sportswear (Or other thick cloth)
  
• Thread of Fabric Color
• Standard Sewing Tools (Iron, Sewing Machine, Scissors, Pencil, Measuring Tape)
• A Belt (optional)

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Use the next few drawings to help you trace outlines onto the folded fabric. Trace out a front piece and a back piece on the fold or the fabric (It is not shown in this picture but the back piece would look the same as the front, only up higher on the fabric where there is free space)
Trace out a shape of the sleeve where you have space.

Now remember that the front and back pieces are being cut on the fold, so make sure you measure the numbers half what they are on my measurement picture (except for the sleeve hole and length of the side)

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Let's make a tunic! Click the button below to see more. Please wait for the images to load ^_^

The inner lines with x's are where a regular shirt would be. The outer lines are where I extended the length and width so the cut would be big enough to look like a tunic rather than  a T-shirt. If you want to make sure you're doing this right, you can take a shirt that fits you and put it up to your trace. The trace should be longer, wider, and should taper out at the end more like a dress. The sleeve hole should be a bit bigger, and the neck will be cut a little lower and larger as well. :) 

Here are the measurements of my cut. Use your own measurements to edit this if you need to. The most important thing is that it fits your neck and is long enough. A tunic like this should go to your mid-thigh. 

• The "Shoulder Width" measurement should match your shoulder measurement. 
  
• The Bust and bottom of the garment are much larger than what my measurements are because a tunic should be baggy. I took half my bust measurement and added 3 inches to it and then just tapered it out to the end so that it got bigger towards the bottom.
  
• The end of the sleeve hole to the bottom of the tunic is 24. You can get this number by measuring from your armpit to your mid-thigh. Add an inch for hemming. 
  

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The sleeve piece should have this arc shape. I cut the sleeves pretty big because Link's Tunic is baggy. These should end at your mid-upperarm. Feel free to cut bigger and edit the length after you try on the garment so you know it fits your size. 
The drawing on the right is the measurements of the sleeve after I sewed it to the front/back piece and before I hemmed it. This is the sleeve veiwed from the side, so the 9" width is really only half of the width.

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When you trace and cut the neckline make sure the back piece has a more shallow curve than the front piece (This is basically the only difference from the front and back piece). Link's Tunic has a pretty wide neck so what I did was this:
Cut conservatively and baste the front to the back
Try it on inside out and see how it looks (My head wouldn't fit through the first time XD)
Draw a rough curve for where you want to cut it. If it feels tight then make the back neck curve a little bigger too.
Recut and try on again. Fiddle with the size until you think it's right!

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Cut out the first piece (front or back) and place it on the fold to trace the next piece. I put the piece I cut out up to me to see if I made it big enough. The sides lines up with the sides of my body which mean it was too tight. I wanted a little more excess so it would be baggy. If you get this result just trace larger than the piece you cut for the next piece. 

Cut out the front, back and sleeves. 

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Baste stitch the sides and tops of shoulders.
Try it on inside out. Make sure it is big enough to be a bit baggy and is the correct length. If you have a lot of excess length feel free to cut it off (leave an inch for hemming though). 
If it's way too big then draw where you would like to resew it and stitch there.

Once it's to your liking, stitch for real. 

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Hem the neckline and iron. 
You will probably have to cut slits in the hemmed over fabric so the neckline does not get wavy. Ironing helps that too.

Top-stitch on the front of the neckline to make it look nice and hold down the hemmed fabric.

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Hem and top-stitch the bottom of the garment.

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These areas should be hemmed now.

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Let's add the sleeves! Click the button below to read more! Please let the images load ^_^

Next will will be working with the sleeves.

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Line up the middle of the sleeve to the shoulder of the tunic, good-side-to-good-side. 

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Pin the sleeve piece to the tunic good-side-to-good-side. Make sure neither piece is bunching up. Work around the curve of the sleeve hole so that it does not wrinkle too much.

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This is one side of the sleeve pinned. Stop pinning when you get to the bottom. It will probably have excess sleeve fabric.

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Keep pinning until the entire sleeve is attached. 

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Here's the bottom of the sleeve where I had excess fabric. This is a good thing.

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Pin the sleeve to itself good-side-to-good-side where you had excess fabric. Try to make this seam as close to the side of the tunic seam as possible (the very bottom of the sleeve).

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Baste stitch the sleeve onto the tunic. Make sure the fabric does not bunch up. Just take it slow and take one pin out at a time. 
When you get to the bottom where your excess sleeve fabric is, just sew close to where you are going to stitch the sleeve together but do not sew down any excess fabric.

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Turn the sleeve right-side-out and see if it looks alright. You should have some wrinkles but no folded over and sewn down bunches. If it looks sloppy, use a ripper and sew again.

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Stitch the sleeves for real this time. Still make sure your fabric doesn't wrinkle under itself. 

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Sew the sleeve to itself good-side-to-good-side where you had it pinned. This forms the tube-shape of the sleeve. Make sure you sew it straight.

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Your sleeves should be all sewn now. Try the tunic on and see where you want the sleeves to end. I had my sleeves stop mid-upper-arm (half way between my shoulder and elbow). Mark where you would like them to end, fold the garment in half as to line them up, cut. (Leave room for hemming).

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Iron down the seams. Iron them towards the back of the garment and/or towards the bottom.

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Iron over the hem of the sleeve. Sew the hem. (Double topstitch all seams/hems to your preference. This made my garment look more tunic-like)

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Onto the Details! Click the button below to read more! Please let the images load ^_^

In the middle of the sleeve, measure up from the hem 2 inches. Mark.

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Cut a straight line up to where you measured.

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Using a tapered hem (the hem gets smaller towards the 2" mark) hem the sides of the cut. Make sure the hemmed edge of the sleeve is held down as well.

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Where the 2" mark was above your cut, use a zigzag stitch to secure the area so the cut cannot be ripped. (See this image and the one below)

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See the zigzag stitch? Your sewing maching probably has this setting, if not, just sew back and forth with a normal stitch untill the edge is secure. 

Mark a 1" by 1" X above the zigzag stitch like so. (Don't mark too darkly!)

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Using a thick triple stitch shown here (Or by just stitching many times with a normal stitch) stitch the two lines of the X. Using my triple stitch, I only had to make 3 or 4 passes to get the line thick enough. Mainly, you just want to make sure you put down enough thread so the X shows up. You can also use embroidery if you want.

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Repeat for other sleeve and cut loose threads. It should look like this! 
<---

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Measure 10" up from the bottom hem of the garment. (If this seems like too much or too little feel free to adjust it) Mark.

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Cut along the hemmed side seam. (This is where it's helpful if you topstitched) You should be able to cut right next to the seam so that you really only have to hem one side (the left side in the image).
Hem the cut edge, make sure the bottom hem of the garment is kept in as well.

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Repeat the zigzag and X process from the sleeves. Make this X bigger, like 2" by 2".

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Repeat for other side. 
This is what it should look like
<----

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Repeat with a 2" cut for the neckline. The X is 2" by 2"

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Finish the garment.
Iron, trim, de-lint ect. 

Here is my easy guide to finishing

Just take a look at that and follow the steps.

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Here's what it looks like with and without the belt! Good luck! Questions? Please email me! kafaelatte@gmail.com
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