Sock yarn tunic - a 2 year work in progress

I promised myself to finish a few projects before starting Colorcraving, Stephen West's mystery shawl. I have finished a pink shawl, a toddler's cowl, and last, but definitely not the least, this sock yarn tunic that I started in May 2011. 

The neckline and the raglan shaping is from a sweater pattern, Elphaba.

The two first flower patterns are from Pinneguri's Latvian Garden Blanket. 

The third flower pattern is form my Blomekrans Vest.

The lace at the bottom is from Kirsten Kapurs Cladonia Shawl.

Here I am, wearing the tunic and knitting the first clue of the Mystery Shawl!

Sunny Easter Tunic

I didn't plan this project. 

The yarn was meant for something else,

a new design

so far only in my head.

I started, but realized, 

the colours had too little contrast 

for what I had in mind. 

The needle size I had brought

was wrong too.

So I ripped it, and changed my plans.

The Lady Marion Tunic 

is a very cute,

and well written pattern. 

It calls for fingering yarn,

so I had to make some modifications, 

working with a thicker yarn,

Rauma Mitu, a wool/alpaca blend.

I think it worked out quite nicely.

I'm surprised this pattern 

does not have more projects on Ravelry.

It's published in English and Danish.

It's perfect for stash busting.

Another redesign tunic

Between knitting, football and pot holders I have been able to do a little sewing:

I found this skirt at Fretex second hand shop.

I liked the fabric and the colours, but I seldom wear long skirts.

So I turned it into a tunic in stead:

The sleeves are from a shirt, that had som ugly stains on the front.

I'm quite happy with the result. Makes me want to do more sewing.

FCBarcelona tunic

I like wearing tunics, here my newest one: It's a cotton tunic from Fretex, decorated to become a FCBarcelona tunic by me.

There are many reasons why I like that football club:

Their colours.

The fact that the club is owned by its supporters.

Messi (not Pinto)

The city

Their Unicef support

The Barcelona t-shirt could have been worn by the family's youngest, but he's a Real Madrid fan, so he won't wear it ...

Butterfly tunic

More than twenty years ago, a good friend of mine made me a yellow butterfly summer top. It was a swap, I sewed her a skirt, she didn't know how to handle a sewing machine at the time.

The skirt is long gone, but I've kept the top, even though I haven't used it much. It was cute, but a bit to short for my belly...


Since then, my friend has learnt to sew. In easter, during her dress exhibition, I was inspired to turn the old top into a tunic, using an old college sweater from my father and some lace ribbon.

Redesign is fun! My friend has an Epla shop now (Epla is the Norwegian version of Etsy).

Have a look!

Latvian tunic

I've finally finished my "Latvian tunic". Latvian because I've used Latvian stars from various sources: mostly this mitten book and this fabuolous site .

The yarn is Mirasol from Du store alpakka, a super soft DK alpaca yarn. It's a lovely yarn, and it's nice to know that when you buy this yarn, you contribute to the Mirasol procject.

I'm not so happy with the yoke and the sleeves, I didn't have a pattern, and was (too) eager to get to the stranded part, which I'm very happy with. But altogether, it's ok.

Another birthday tunic

For my friend Johanne, I made this brown tunic. I've used two old trousers, one fabric from a thrift store, another one from my stash, crocheted flowers and edging. See details on Flickr.

Birthday tunic

A while ago a good friend complimented me on my new tunic bought from ZadOR ( see small photo). So I thought I'd make her something similar for her birthday. Like me, she likes the idea of reuse and redesign, so I'm sure she won't mind me using an old trouser, an old sweater and old fabric cut off from a dress turned into a blouse a while ago. The yarn for the edging is from my stash, left overs. The buttons are new though, from Buttonmad, Incomparable Handmade Buttons , bought in our local fabric store. On Flickr, you can see a photo with notes.

Congolese tunic and Mama's lace

I bought this lovely fabric in Congo (Brazzaville) in 1988. I made a dress, that I used to like a lot, a big sack with shoulder pads, as you might guess, at some point I stopped liking it. But I still loved the fabric, so I decided to turn it into a tunic. I sort of removed the central part of the dress; I cut it right under the bust, and then sewed on the bottom part of the skirt. I made a V-neck and added a velvet ribbon and some flower buttons. It was still a bit wide, so I knitted a lace to hold it in a bit, and add to the cuteness. I found the lace pattern through Ravelry, it's from Janine. I thought the story of the lace was sweet, so I'd like to share it with you. Here how Janine describes the pattern on Ravelry:

"I was recently going through my late Mom’s craft things when I found this knitting pattern.

It is the pattern my Grandmother used to make lace. She was a simple country woman. A farmer’s wife and mother of four children.

I can remember her making quilts and knitting lace.

She used this simple lace to edge all of her pillowcases.

I am not a knitter but I wanted Grandma’s lace to live on so I decided to share the pattern. "

The pattern is easy, and gives a simple but cute lace. It's worked from one end, so you can make it as long as you wish. Thanks for sharing, Janine! I added a crocheted cord of chain stitches to the lace in this tunic.

Fretex tunics

I come from a family who seldom threw things away. At a time, reuse was a necessity, but still now, when we have everything we need, I like the idea of reuse. We throw away too many things in this part of the world.



These tunics are made from one sweater from Fretex, the Salvation Army's second hand shop in Norway. The rest is fabric, ribbons and buttons from my stash. By making the two "flowers" with buttons, I managed to use the whole sweater! The darker green turtle neck is from the bottom ribbing. The rest of the ribbing was turned into a flower (see collage).

I don't have a photo of the original sweater, beeing too eager to cut it up. There were some stains in the front, those are now hidden behind the cuffs.

I intended to make a sort of tutorial. for the flowers. But when it came to finishing, I got to eager, and the last steps went without photographing. But you can probably work out how they're made, it's quite simple. Here you see the first steps, anyway.

Then you just sew the cutted edge with tack stitches, pull tight and fasten. Hide the stitches with a button. Voilà!

This little girl wanted to help sewing, too!

Hawaiian flower tunic

I fell in love with these flowers when I found them on Flickr. Later, I saw them on Ravelry, and found a link to the free pattern. I sighed when I saw "Pattern is written in Australian terminology" - so, I would have to struggle through a third crochet terminology... But it turns out, British and Australian terminology are the same, at least for the stitches used in this pattern.

Tunic tutorial

You need: Twelve flower motifs joined like this. My motifs measure 8,5 cm, inner square 17 cm, outer square 34 cm.

A big t-shirt

Cut t-shirt like this

Cut sleeves like this

Sew together like this.

Add flowers

(Note about the flower motif pattern from Ravelry: "This pattern was originally in a single post, but when the designer’s blog was migrated she re-posted it round by round as a mystery motif. The pattern starts in the post titled “rings” on the linked page. You will then need to view the posts for each additional round, navigating to another archive page for several.")