Progress

I still wanted to thank you all for your kind comments on my pants. I'm so happy with them, and almost lost them yesterday! I was at a birthday party and someone pushed me accidentally, while I was holding a glass of red wine in my hand. And of course that went over my new pair of pants, leaving one leg full of stains! Very unfortunate, and I thought of that happening when I put it on. Weird. Immediately soaked the stains with water and salt as far as possible while wearing it, and put it in the washing machine at home after applying special stain remover. It worked, and nothing can be seen any more. I can tell you I was relieved.

On to the tunic for my daughter, that is not a project to be made by her after all. Too complicated. Thanks Summerset for your ideas, I took your advice and did some other things too to remove bulk. These are my steps so far (and for those of you who are on the point of making this one: I'm not finished yet, so I don't know the final result yet):

	Instead of pressing the dart in the body part upwards, I cut it open, graded the seam and pressed it flat.
	I cut one of the ruffle layers in two and made a small hem at the bottom. This way two layers are removed from the front. So: you don't need to cut the pattern piece for this on the fold this way, and you don't need it twice in a double layer.
	I sewed the first layer that is directly on the body part just beside the actual seam line in the seam allowances to baste it in place. At the top it is sewn just outside the seamline, at the body part. Then I cut away the seam allowance at the stitch line. This layer then doesn't need to be folded over the top. Result: after folding two layers less.
	The upper layer is now pinned over the under layer. There are only two layers that need to be folded, instead of the original five.

I am thinking of applying elastic at the top in a variation of the anonymous comment given. Of course I"ll let you know how this top will be continued.