Shower curtain tunic

Continuing on my Lisette pattern streak (did you miss it?  I've made TWO things!), here's the Portfolio tunic (Simplicity 2245, size 6).  The fabric is a fabulous cotton twill with a fun story: my friend Dawn bought it as a shower curtain, changed her mind, and gifted this pink and orange happiness to lucky me!  This provided some useful pressure (entirely self-imposed, mind you) to actually bring this shower curtain into a new form.

I am curious what Lisette designer Liesl thinks of sewists' interpretation of this pattern, because when I checked the Flickr photo group I found a lot of icky muumuus that made their wearers look rather rotund.  And then of course, I forged ahead anyway and made a floral version myself.  By the way, checking Flickr groups (or Patternreview) is a good technique to get concrete ideas of how patterns look on normal people, not models, before you sew them yourself.  You can also see what a pattern yields in a variety of fabric prints and weights to make a more informed decision.

The tunic has some fun details that you don't usually find in a regular pattern:

1. Front yoke/princess seams that turn into pockets.  As a teacher, I feel that pockets are an essential part of all my clothes, so this is a very good thing.  Normally I would consider pockets on a tunic to be a real no-no (bulky, child-like), but I think these are clever and classy.

2. A little square piece below the neckline (perhaps this has a technical name?!).  Someone more creative could probably make a real fashion statement with this tidbit.

The one part that threw me for a loop was the cuffed sleeve, because I followed the directions for the long-sleeve view by accident.  I will forever be reminded of this error because my facings pop out a bit at the underarm as a result.  Now, do I have leftover fabric so that I could choose to redo the sleeves?  Yes.  Am I going to take the time to make this tunic perfect?  Of course not.