Skipper Tunic by Papercut Patterns

Finally I've made something with a purpose! Inspired by a lack of nice beach wear and with the summer holidays fast approaching, I decided to put this beautiful striped linen from Mood Fabrics in New York to good use. I scoured the internet for suitable patterns and eventually decided on the Skipper Tunic by Papercut Patterns. I was really excited to discover how easy the instructions were to follow in comparison to many of the traditional pattern brands that I've used. 

The dress was mostly quite easy to make, however I embraced a new challenge and inserted my first eyelets! This was initially quite scary, since they were inserted after the dress was already complete. To ease my concern about potentially destroying the dress, I Googled and practiced multiple times on some leftover fabric. My first tip is to avoid the confusing lack of instructions on the eyelet pack.

I bought Sullivans tool with small eyelets pack. The pack comes with a hole puncher that may have you thinking you can actually punch a whole though the fabric with it - this is not the case! Ignore the punch and trace around the edge of the eyelet with a fading or washable fabric pen on the place where the eyelet will be inserted. You then need to use a sharp scalpel to cut an X inside the circle - being careful not to cut outside the circle. You can then insert the eyelet through the hole towards the wrong side, flip the fabric over and place the backing on. Once you have the two pieces aligned, take your hammer and give it a few good hits so the front and back of the eyelet join together. It's very satisfying once you work it out.

Aside from the eyelets, the rest of the dress was very simple to make. Lining up the placket did require a bit of precision, but I managed to get it to sit nicely after a bit of manoeuvring. Since I was making my dress specifically for the beach, I decided not to use any facing. I don't think this has caused any issues, however the linen I used was quite heavy. I can definitely see how facing may be necessary with a lighter fabric. 

I really liked the way the sleeves were attached before the side seams had been sewn - this was so much easier than instructions I've followed in the past! I often find that sleeves can require a bit of unpicking and re-sewing, but that wasn't the case with this dress. 

My final tip would be to make sure you're ok with the length. I have quite long legs and found that the dress did end up quite short. This doesn't bother me for a beach dress, in fact it's probably better, but I'd consider lengthening it slightly if I was going to wear it anywhere else. 

I'm looking forward to trying another pattern by Papercut Patterns :)