How to Create an Easy Summer Top

A tutorial to design and sew your own top ! Step by step guide without a pattern

Estimated time : 4 hours

Difficulty : Easy/Medium - You only need to know how to operate your sewing machine : preparing a bobbin, threading your needle and adjusting the stitch length.

This Instructable has two parts 

• The first part consists of creating your custom-made pattern. If you have never done a pattern, don’t worry ! This one is not too difficult, it’s just like following a recipe. You won’t need a mannequin. 

The pattern will consist of four pieces: the bust, the back. the straps and the flounce.

• The second part is the sewing part. It will explain how to assemble and sew the different parts together.

• Around 1 meter of fabric. Light coton if you want it to look like mine
• Sewing thread of the same color
• Sewing machine
• Sewing pins
• Safety pin
• Measuring tape
• A ironing board
• A top that fits you. We will use it as reference for some measurements
• A big sheet of paper. You can also tape normal A4 sheets together
• A Pencil
• Square ruler
• A pair of scissors. Even better if you have a rotary cutter
• Fusible interfacing, not required

We will start by taking measurements of your existing top. Fold it in half (you should have 4 thicknesses of fabric) and pin it to your sheet of paper. It will be easier to follow if you place the fold on the left.

Trace around the top with your pencil. Make sure to add 1 centimeter on all sides except the one with the fold, just like the black lines in the picture. You can also slightly modify the shape of the top by redrawing the line in a slightly different way. For example I choose to redraw it so that it has less cleavage. The redrawn line is shown as a dotted yellow line.

You can now unpin the top from the sheet of paper, you wont need it anymore.

Take your measuring tape and measure the distance from the top to the bottom of your breast. This will be the distance from the end of the strap to the beginning of the flounce. In the pictures it is shown in blue.

Trace a line of the length you just measured on the paper. It has to start at the sharp top point and be parallel to the line corresponding to where the fold was - shown in red. 

Draw a line perpendicular to the red line that passes through the end of the blue line. It is shown orange in the drawing.

Draw a line perpendicular to the orange line and that intersects the left of the contour. Mark a point 5 centimeters up this line. This line is shown in green.

Now draw a line 60º from this line, as shown by the yellow line. It should cross over the orange line. 

Lastly round the transition between the red and orange lines to make it nicer.

That’s it for the pattern of the bust ! It’s the hardest step of this instructable ! The good news is that if you messed-it-up you can try again on another piece of paper. So if you are not happy with the results you can give-it as many tries as you want ! This will no longer be true when you go from pencil to scissors. 

Once you are happy, erase the construction lines. You will later need to cut this piece twice, one will be visible, the other will be a lining. Writing “x2” can help you remember this. This piece has to be cut on the fold of the fabric, so you should also write which side goes on the fold. If you don’t know what any of this means, just do as in the picture, it will be explained later.

We will now create the pattern for the back piece. Trace the pattern of the bust into a new piece of paper. You don’t need actual carbon paper, just tape the new piece of paper and the drawing to a window and trace over the lines !

Join the left line to the right line, like in the picture. Erase the construction lines and that’s it ! Make sure to copy the annotations from the picture.

This step will help you make sure that the finished product will fit you, and to make little adjustments if not. 

 Measure the length across the back pattern in centimeters. We will call this length L. Calculate a new length T, using the formula: T = 4 * L - 8 (4 times L minus 8). 

Using the measuring-tape, measure your circumference around your breasts. This measurement should be close to T in centimeters. If not lengthen or shorten both pieces of the pattern like shown in the picture by the dotted purple lines. In doubt, always add 1 centimeter, as it will later be far easier to take it back if you don’t need it than to put it if you do.

For the straps, draw a rectangle of 4 centimeters by 50 centimeters. Make the annotations as in the picture.

Start by measuring the distance from the bottom of your breast to your hip. This corresponds to the blue line on the picture. We will call this length H. 

Draw a rectangle 8 * L (eight times L) centimeters long and H centimeters high. 

This is the last step of the pattern ! Congratulations.

Make sure to wash and iron your fabric, so that it reaches its final size. You don’t want your brand new top to become smaller the first time you wash it !

You can now cut the necessary pieces of fabric, following the contour of the patterns you just made. You will need :

• 1 x FLOUNCE
• 2 x STRAP
• 2 x BUST
• 1 x BACK

ATTENTION ! : The patterns we made for the back and the bust are halved. This means that because they are symmetrical, we only draw on half. This makes the cutting part faster. In order to cut these two pieces, fold your fabric along the grainline. Then place the sides marked “on the fold” along the fold. When you cut the fabric, you will actually be cutting two thicknesses of fabric, and you will get a perfectly symmetrical part.

In the end you should have something quite similar to the picture.

The following steps show how to put the top together ! 

Fold the back piece along it’s longer side, leaving 1 centimeter, and iron the fold so that it holds its shape better. Then serge this side. You don’t need a serger to do that, you can also use the zigzag stitch of your sewing machine. Serging prevents the fabric from fraying.

Then sew the hem, around 0.7 centimeters from the fold. This is done to hide the serging.

This step has to be done only on one of the longer sides of the back piece.

We are now going to prepare the straps. Fold the straps in half making sure the right side (the better looking side of your fabric) is inside. Then sew 1 centimeter from the fold. Cut the excess fabric about 0.2 centimeters away from the sewing.

Turn the straps inside out. You can use a safety pin to make it easier.

Making the straps this way allows us to hide the sewing and make them look nice.

During this step we are going to assemble the straps, the bust and the back.

Lay one piece of bust right side up. Place the back piece where the right sides face each other. Make sure that the side we prepared earlier is up. Then place the straps. Lastly, place the second bust with the wrong side up. Make sure that it looks like in the picture.

Pin this assembly together and stitch 1 centimeter from the edge.

Cut a triangle at the bottom of the cleavage, so that it doesn’t bulge when we turn it inside out.

You can use fusible interfacing if you want it to look like in the picture. But if you prefer fabric to be more fluid, I advise you not to use it.

You can now turn the top inside out ! It’s exciting to see it coming together ! You should now have a piece resembling a crop top. You can try it to make sure it fits.

Follow the same steps as with the back piece to iron, serge and make a hem. As with the first rectangle, do this only on one of the longer sides.

Then fold the piece, making sure the right sides are facing each other. Stitch 1 centimeter from the edge in order to obtain a big tube. 

We are now going to do something called ruffles or gather. If you have never done this you can watch a tutorial online. I will also explain how it's done. The basic idea is to stitch a length of fabric in such a way that when you pull from the threads the fabric will form folds calleds ruffles.

Start by setting your sewing machine to the longest possible stitch length. Stitch all around the tube, 5 millimeters away from the edge of the side without the hem. Then stitch again parallel to the first time, but 15 millimeters from the edge. Make sure to leave enough thread before and after the stitches so you can pull from them. Don’t back stitch at this sewing, you have to be able to pull from the threads later.

You should have 8 threads where you started stitching. Carefully pull from them until the circumference of the tube matches the circumference of the part we sew on the previous step. Make sure to pull from all the threads, so that you get a consistent result. 

Once you are happy with the results, tie the eight threads together. 

We are now going to sew the two pieces together. 

Turn the flounce, so that the right side is facing outside. Do the same with the bust but with the right side inside. Put the flouce inside the bust, the two right sides should face each other. Pin both pieces together, making sure that the ruffles are evenly spaced all around the circumference. 

Stitch the two parts together, 1 centimeter from the edge, so between the two parallel stitches in the flounce. Unstitch the stitches that you used to create the ruffles.

You are finished ! You can try your new top and check that it fits. You can also post pictures to let me know how nice it looks ! 

There are many modifications that you can make to this pattern. You could try turning it into a dress by making a longer flounce. You can also make it into a crop top. Smaller modifications are also possible, you could for instance change the shape of the back and front.