Sewing the Endless Summer Tunic from A Verb for Keeping Warm

Hi! It's been a hot minute! 

On the occasion of finishing my fourth Endless Summer Tunic, I finally feel qualified to offer an opinion on this pattern. 

Overall, it's a well drafted pattern. I raised the armholes significantly - they gapped a lot on the first two versions. My second two versions are pretty long - I wear them as dresses, more than as tunics. They are great layering pieces. I wear them alone, as breezy dresses in the summer, then pile on leggings and sweaters in the fall. I'll keep making this pattern, for sure.

But. (And it's a big but!) I do have some problems with this pattern.

This pattern and I got off to a rocky start. I bought the paper pattern (which is no longer being sold), and promptly ruined my ironing board cover and iron trying to flatten it out so I could even attempt to trace it accurately. UGH. Here's the new ironing board cover, which is infinitely better than the old one. But still. 

The written instructions are, to put it bluntly, awful. More diagrams would have worked wonders. Besides the schematic of the finished garment, there was only one diagram in the whole instruction manual! Hardly what I would expect for a beginner pattern.  The written instructions lacked clear grammar, making them hard to understand. If there had been good diagrams, I could have overlooked this. Instead, I found myself bewildered by what the pattern was telling me to do. 

I had to take the Creativebug class to make any sense of the instructions. And since it's marketed as a beginner pattern, I really take issue with this. If someone has to pay extra money to understand how to make the pattern, then it's not a beginner pattern!

I was also frustrated that they only gave the finished garment measurements. I know this is a trend in body positivity, but it doesn't do much to help me select a size if they don't also give a recommended ease (which was on the website but not included in the pattern).  I much prefer to see the body measurements in a chart, lined up with the finished garment measurements in another chart. This really helps me look at all the measurements, figure out if I need to do any grading, etc. Because this pattern didn't have any of that, I had a lot more angst than usual about selecting a size. 

Speaking of body positivity and size inclusivity, this pattern only comes in sizes 37"-47". As of today (May 25, 2022), the website states:

Coming Spring 2020 - a wider range of sizes! 7/23/20 - ETA: Due to the pandemic, unfortunately it will be Summer 2021 for a range of new sizes. We will be selling through our current stock of printed patterns and will not be re-ordering new printed patterns until we can include a larger range of sizes. We will continue to sell downloadable PDFs, and will allocate the income from the sale of these patterns, to expanding our range of sizes.

I checked the other patterns on their website and found the same statement across their self-published patterns. It seems just a tad fishy that almost two years later, Verb hasn't followed through on its promise of expanded sizes. ​

Mentioned:

• Pattern
• Ironing board cover (be sure to select the size that works for your ironing board!)
• Iron cleaner
• My Iron
• Creativebug class
• Reviews on Pattern Review 
• A blog post I found helpful
• Hand Sewing Clothing: A Guide

The final verdict: I like this pattern, but proceed with caution!