The Modern Peasant Top - Tutorial

FYI: This tutorial is looooooong! Sit back and grab a snack! But I promise, it's only because I was trying to be thorough. It is NOT a difficult item to sew. All of the scary things about knit will not apply to this shirt. No special needle needed, no special stitch, no special skills! It's nearly foolproof. In the end you get a shirt that's soft and comfy, modest without any other layers, and won't even gape open when you bend over - SHAZAM!

If you use my measurements, it will yield a women's size SMALL shirt (approximately.) Please adjust the measurements to fit your own needs if necessary. I will try to give advice for how to do this.

Ready to begin? Here's the supplies you will need:

• 1.5 yards of 60" wide knit fabric (less/more if you are adjusting the size, or if it does not come that wide) Mine is from Hobby Lobby
• 1/4" elastic (varying lengths, so just go ahead and grab a bunch)
• thread to match your fabric
• 1 (or 2) small safety pins
• regular sewing supplies (scissors, measuring tape, etc.)
• All seam allowances should be about 1/4" unless otherwise noted

STEP 1 - Wash and dry your knit fabric. MUST MUST MUST.

STEP 2 - Create 3 pattern pieces. Yep, I make my patterns from paper towels and scotch tape them together. Call me Fancy Nancy. You can use wrapping paper or just some cheap cotton fabric, but I happen to really like paper towels :)

The first will be the "sleeve."

Second will be the "shirt front/back." I might also refer to this as the "main body" of the shirt. I only made half the pattern so that it COULD be cut on the fold if you wanted... more on that later.

Third will be the "bottom band" of the shirt. It's a long skinny rectangle. We'll figure out the dimensions in a minute.

Now if you want to make a women's size SMALL here are the measurements, and try to mimic the angles as best you can based on the photos.

The bottom band will be determined by your hip measurement. (I wanted my shirt to sit at the top of my hips, so that's where I measured.) The short side will be 6.5 inches - for everyone. The long side of the rectangle is this: your (top of) hip measurement minus 2 inches.

• My body measured 35 inches, so I cut my bottom band at 6.5 x 33

If you need to make a pattern of a different size... (IE: if you want bigger/smaller than I am) here's my best advice for each area:

A - This curved line will be the side of your shirt's neckline, or the part that goes around the top of the shoulder. Make it a slight curve - SLIGHT. It should go from the middle of your collar bone to the same spot on the backside of your shoulder (where a collarbone would be IF you had one on the back!)

B - Start at that same midpoint on the collarbone, and make a line at a 45-degree angle down to the side of your chest (under your armpit.) *Please note that it will be a 45-degree angle when you hold it up to your body, but not when laid flat on the cutting table.* Then add 2 inches. This distance will be line B on both pattern pieces. The photo below is a rough demonstration of me getting this measurement. Don't forget to add 2 inches.

C - I don't care who you are, I'm pretty sure this should be 3 inches for everyone. If you're crazy-tall, make it 4. If it's a tiny child, maybe 2. Bigger is better, you can always whack some off later.

D - No need to calculate this one. It will be whatever it ends up to be when you've created the rest of the piece.

E - This will be the neckline on the front and back of your shirt. Continue that SLIGHT curve that you used for line A and measure the center of your chest to the middle of your collar bone. Then add 2 inches. This total distance should be your line E.

G- This will be the widest part of the shirt, so it should accomodate your bust. Take your bust measurement and add 3 inches for looseness. Remember this top is NOT tight. HALF your newly calculated measurement should be the front of the shirt, so half of that number will be Line G for this pattern piece.

B - Don't forget to use the same # you got for Line B instructions above.

F - Roughly the distance from your bust to your hip.

OK that part SEEMED hard. I hope it wasn't!!!! Everything is very straightforward and fast from here on out.

STEP 3 - Cut them out!

2 of these

and 2 of these

WAIT! I'll show you a nifty trick. For this piece, you COULD put the right side of the pattern at the fold, and just cut that twice, but you'll notice I didn't put it on the fold (above photo.) Here's another way that I used...

Double your fabric. Put a pin at the right edge of the pattern piece, one at the top and one at the bottom. Can you see my pin?

Cut out the pattern RIGHT UP TO THOSE PINS. Do NOT cut the entire right edge of the pattern!

Then just flip the entire pattern over (to the right) and cut it out again, this time avoid cutting the entire LEFT side of the pattern.

Ta Da! There's your 2 pieces of shirt front/back.

STEP 4 - Attaching the sleeves.

Let's begin with the pieces you already have in front of you.

Go ahead and peel away one of them, so we're just working with one piece that we will now call the "shirt FRONT."

Fold it in half lengthwise so all those edges match up perfectly.

See this pointy corner right here at the very top? DON'T CUT IT. Don't shorten it, don't change it at all. Keeping that in mind, you can cut just past it and deepen the neckline on the front side of the shirt. If you're like me, you want it to "scoop" just a little more than the backside does.

Like so!

Unfold it again and place it right-side-up on your work surface.

Take one of the "sleeve" pieces and lay it down (right sides together) matching up those diagonal sides that were labeled B on our pattern pieces. They should be the same length. Pin those 2 together along that diagonal line.

Time for the sewing! I like to use a slightly longer stitch length for knit. Not LONG, just a tad longer than usual. Here's what I set it to on my machine.

**ALL seam allowances should be about 1/4" unless otherwise noted.

Now sew a straight line down that diagonal. As shown below, don't be tempted to turn that slight corner and sew down the short side of the sleeve!!! They almost seem to line up, but they don't! Just the diagonal.

Here's what you've got when that's done:

Repeat with the other "sleeve" piece on the other side.

Kinda looks like big huge angel wings, hehehe.

Now take the "shirt back" and lay it face-down on the "shirt front." Match up all the edges.

Fold one of the angel wings (um, I mean sleeves) forward and match up those diagonal lines again.

Pin and sew.

Yah, they don't always match up perfectly (even when they should.) Grrr. Have a chocolate break and keep on going.

Repeat for the sleeve on the other side.

Now you have a shirt that looks somewhat like this!?

STEP 5 - Sew the side seams

We're going to work on this underarm area right now.

You're going to sew something similar to the shape of a #7. Up the sleeve, sharp turn, down the side of the shirt. Yes, all in one swoop just like that. Make sure when you head into that sharp turn, you go all the way up to (and even cross) the diagonal line seams that we just finished. If you don't cross over those lines, you'll have a small hole in the armpit. So... stay away from the edges of the fabric in that corner. You want a nice high "point" in your #7 and then sharp turn!

Repeat on the other side. Once you're done with those 2 seams, take your scissors and make some little slits in the seam allowance that's near the armpit. Just a few inches to each side of the corner. DON'T cut across your stitching! Only little slits in the seam allowance. This helps the armpit of the shirt not bunch up so badly.

Flashdance, anyone??? "What a feelin!"

Don't worry the neckline will feel ridiculously HUGE.

Go ahead and try it on. Check the fit from the bust and below.

The top will feel really silly, but that's what we want right now.

AND... my armpits are still a little bunchy. We're going to have to forgive that one as well and move on.

STEP 6 - Sew the neckline.

Slip your shirt inside-out again. Take the dead-center front of the neckline and fold it down 1.5 inches. Pin that baby.

Do the same for the dead-center BACK of the neckline. Now do it for all 4 of the seams that surround the neckline, making sure that you line up the seam as it folds over.

Last, add a bunch more pins as you go around the rest of the neckline. It WILL need to stretch to accommodate the folding. This is totally OK! Stretch away! As long as you got those first few landmark pins in place, the rest can do what it needs. Make sure you kept your folding to a uniform 1.5" all the way around. Now bring the whole thing back to the sewing machine.

Put the fold right at the edge of your presser foot. Starting at one of those 4 seams that fed into the neckline (pick whichever one you want) start sewing a straight line all the way around. Remember it's OK to stretch to allow that folding to lay flat.

Even still, here's where the design of the shirt is so great with knit. If it puckers a little, you're never going to see! If it bunches a tad, no problem! If your seams are a little wiggly, who cares? You may noticed... the finished product of this shirt is EXTREMELY gathered up and any flaws in there will be non-existent! Yay for forgiveness!

Back to where we were... sew all the way around the neckline, cross right over your beginning stitches and backstitch to secure.

Now we're going to sew a 2nd line of stitching a little farther over. This time INSTEAD OF putting the first line of stitching exactly at the presser foot (1/4 inch seam allowance), this time you want to put it a little bit past the presser foot (see photo above.) You want a little bit bigger than 1/4" seam allowance this time. Hope that makes sense.

This time don't go quite all the way around. Leave a 2" opening.

Take one end of your elastic and stick a safety pin on it like this.

Stick it into your 2" opening and starting scootching that baby all the way around the neckline (in between your 2 rows of stitching.) It will be a little rocky getting past those diagonal seams, but keep at it, you'll make it!

At last, the 2 ends of elastic will be sticking out of that small opening. Pull on them gently to scrunch up the neckline to your liking. Looser = less gathers and wider opening/more scooped. Tighter = more gathers and smaller opening/higher up on chest.

Pin the 2 ends of elastic together. TRY IT ON to make sure the tightness is to your liking. Adjust if necessary. Now would be a great time to make sure your elastic is not twisted anywhere along that whole circle of the neckline. Make sure it lays flat (inside your neckline) from end to end. When satisfied, turn the shirt inside out again.

Swap out that safety pin for a regular sewing pin. Careful not to lose one of those ends of elastic! Gently pull the pinned elastic away from the shirt for a moment so you have some room to sew on it.

Using a narrow zig-zag stitch, secure the 2 ends of the elastic together quite well.

Switch back to your straight stitch on the machine, and sew across that 2" gap we left open to close it up! Make sure you do not stitch on the actual elastic when doing this.

STEP 7 - Finish off the sleeves

With your shirt still inside out, fold up 1" on the end of the sleeve. (If your sleeves seem WAAAY too long here, you can trim a bit off. But remember, the gathering itself will bunch them up a bit.)

This time we're only going to sew one line of stitching for the elastic, so go ahead and use that 1/4"-plus-a-little-bit-extra seam allowance (as shown above.) In other words, the fold at the end of the sleeve will be just a little bit past the edge of the presser foot.

Leave a 2" opening again to feed your elastic through. Follow the same directions we used the first time to scootch that elastic all the way around, try it on to make sure it's comfortable on your arm, then secure elastic with a zig-zag stitch, and straight stitch to close the hole. Repeat for the other sleeve.

Now you've got something like this. Woo hoo it actually resembles a REAL SHIRT!

Almost done!

STEP 8 - The Bottom Band

Cut out your bottom band of fabric (if you haven't already) according to your personal hip measurement. Instructions for this are in STEP 2.

With right sides together, fold it in half and match up the 2 short sides. Sew across that short side.

You now have a tube. Using your fingers, press open that seam and fold the tube in half again, this time matching up the LONG sides. Keep the wrong sides of the fabric together this time. In other words, you still have a tube, now it's just much skinnier.

Like so!

Now take your shirt, right side out, and slip the tube OVER AND AROUND the bottom of the shirt. Your tube will be on the outside of the shirt. You'll want the folded side of the tube UP, and the raw edges of the tube matched up with the bottom edge of the shirt.

I know this picture does not show it very well. Just imagine the bottom band of the shirt in its proper place, but flipped up.

Find the one seam on your bottom band tube, and match it up with a side seam of the shirt (either one is fine.) Pin those 2 together, matching up all 3 raw edges at the bottom nice and even.

Find the opposite end of the tube (the exact halfway point around from the tube's seam) and pin THAT to the other side seam of the shirt.

Now... the end of your shirt is bigger than the bottom band? This is most likely what will happen, and it's what we want. Stick this whole contraption under the sewing machine and you want to begin sewing the band to the bottom of the shirt. After the first few stitches, S-T-R-E-T-C-H the bottom band as you sew it to the shirt. Don't stretch the shirt bottom! Just the bottom band (tube). I find that a good way to do this is hold ONLY the tube in front of the needle with one hand and ALL 3 LAYERS behind the needle with the other hand. I use the front hand to stretch, and the back hand to guide everything through.

Freaking out now? Don't worry. It's not as hard as it sounds.

So we're stretching as we go. All you have to do is make sure that by the time you reach that "halfway point" pin, all 3 layers go through somewhat evenly. Same thing when you get back to the beginning at your starting point. Sew all the way around and backstitch to secure.

Flip the bottom band back down in place and it will look something like this!?

Congratulations!!! You now have yourself a Modern Peasant Top! WHEW.