This tunic is Dress W from the first Stylish Dress Book. If you’re unfamiliar with this book or the others in the series, it is a Japanese pattern book with dress and top patterns from A to Z…”relaxed and comfortable yet elegant dresses and tops.” It’s also filled with lovely photos.

For this top, I pulled a light and soft vintage linen from my stash. The ruffles down the bodice consist of two layers of unfinished fabric, so this fabric is suited to it quite well.

My deviations from the pattern include shortening the length quite a bit and incorporating both french and flat felled seams. Well-finished seams always add a nice touch and with this fabric it was a necessity.

If I were to make this again, I would modify the top of the sleeve to reduce the curvature. The pattern is designed like a traditional sleeve, yet is meant to sit a couple inches off the shoulder. This may not be an issue for all fabrics, but this material really doesn’t have the weight to make the sleeve fall smoothly from the seam. And…I would make my sleeve cuffs just a little bit tighter - the gathers loosened up on me as I attached the binding!

This was only my second garment from the book, despite having it for quite some time. I’ve also made top Q in a merino jersey. While I’m mostly happy with my finished Q, it did teach me to question the size measurements in the book as it turned out rather large.

Have you ventured into sewing from Japanese pattern books? Please share with us what you’ve made!