Made By Lex

I have been pining over this top from Anthropologie for a long time. Then I saw this fabric from Harts and it reminded me of it so I decided to try my hand at making something similar. I’m happy to answer ay questions about the tutorial. Here it goes!!

The first thing you need to do is cut the front collar. You need to cut a ‘U’ shape. Measure the distance between your shoulders to figure out how wide you want it and the distance from your shoulder to how low you want the front of the U. You are going to need TWO identical pieces because we’re going to make it double sided for extra weight.

Next you need the 2 back straps. Measure from your shoulder to how low you want it in the back. It’s generally above you bra strap. Now, cut FOUR of those (two fro each strap).

You also need to cut the bottom hem piece. I just did single sided for that. After you cut those, this is what you should have…

Now you need to sew the straps together, as shown. Take each side, sew it together then turn it right side out and iron flat.

Pin the collar really well…
…the sew it together as shown. DO NOT sew the bottom part of the ‘U’. We’re going to tuck the shirt in there ad then seam it shut. After you sew it, turn it right side out and press with your iron.

Get your pieces and pin as shown. We are going to connect the collar piece and the two straps. Pin them well and then sew together where the shoulder is.

Here’s the one big piece now.

Now for the main part of the shirt. I find that a half a yard, normal width cotton works perfect. It is wide enough and depending on your size you can do more or less of a little gather in the front. Cut the fabric in half and then sew together on each side. (You don’t have to cut it in half, but if you don’t you’ll only have a seam on one of the sides and I think that looks off, so I have a seam on each side.)

Create a gather in the center of the shirt. You can also do pleats if you want to. Depending on you chest width, you may need more or less gather.

Get your collar now and go to the opening at the bottom of the ‘U’. FOld it under slightly at the openings and iron it down.

Pin it so the crease stays better. Do this on both sides of the U so you have a clean hem on each side of the shirt.

Now get your shirt and tuck it into the ‘U’ collar.

Pin the shirt and the collar together. Now you are going to sew the collar to the shirt along the opening.

Now we need to stitch all along the back of the shirt before we add the back straps on. I serge mine, then top stitch it, but you can just double fold and stitch, add hem tape or do a zigzag stitch.

FInd the place in the back where you want your back straps to lie and pin them in place, then stitch onto the shirt.

Lastly, it’s time to add your hem piece. I stitch along the bottom to create them hem, then add it on to my shirt piece. Then you’re done!!

Oh i forgot!! I added some buttoms to the front of mine like the anthro shirt. I just handstitched them on with some thicker thread.

Here’s how it comes out!!

i LOVE LOVE LOVE this shirt!!!! Let me know what you think!

If you try it remember to add some pics to the flickr pool!

And the bubble dress is the clear winner so I will be starting my tutorial for that tomorrow! Thanks for all the votes!

Here was my inspiration for this shirt from Anthropologie.
I love the checkers and the ruffles.

This is what I found at the thrift store for $2. Don’t worry if it has pockets. Just remove it with a seam ripper.

The first thing you need to do is to create the pattern for your shirt. The way I do it is to measure my shoulder width, under arm width, chest width then how long I want it. From there I can figure out how I want my neckline. You can make it as low or as high as you want. (Disappearing ink is my best friend) Another way to do it is to trace another shirt you have, or use a shirt pattern you have laying around. Once you do your first one, then the patterns from the on get easy.

Next, cut out your pattern. Keep the sleeves!! Then turn it inside out.

We’re going to do a belt on this shirt so mark where you want your belt loops to go.

Now, cut two belt loops, 4inches by 1 inch. Fold them in half and stitch along the seam to close. They will look like this:Fold your belt loops in half and place them in the shirt where you want them. You will see the ends sticking out of the shirt. Pin the shirt together because next is sewing it.
Sew the shirt together at the shoulders and the sides. After you sew it- CHECK YOUR FIT! Does it need to be smaller in any area? Do the armholes need to be bigger? Do you like the placement of the neckline? Check it ALL here!

Sew down the front seam to keep the shirt together, which makes it unable to button. It will keep it in place while you’re sewing it, too.

Get your sleeves and cut them open at the seam, then iron them flat to get out the creases.Now we are going to use the sleeves to cut out the ruffle strips that we will be using along the neckline, and the belt. I used my rotary cutter to help me cut straight strips, but feel free to use scissors! Cut the strips 3 inches wide and cut as many as you can.

Here’s, roughly, what you should have.

Cut off the button pieces because they won’t look so great amidst all our ruffles.

Serge or sew all your strips together to get one, long piece.

Measure out about double the length of the how long you want your ruffle. My ruffle ended past my shoulders, but you may want to go all the way around. We will also be doing a second layer of ruffles under the collar ruffle so measure for all that, too. (For example, your neckline is 15 inches, the underneath where you want your second ruffle is 11 inches. Cut 52 inches of strips to ruffle) Leave the remainder for the belt.
At this point we want to edgestitch along the bottom of our long ruffle. Serge or sew along the bottom of the long strip to create a hem. Then it’s time to ruffle. I love ruffling! It’s like watching magic If you don’t know how to ruffle, refer to my other tutorial for instructions here. This is what it should look like after.

It’s time to pin the ruffle to the collar.First off, decide if you want the ruffle to go all the way around or just around the shoulders, like I did.
There are 2 ways you can do this. The first is pin the ruffle directly on top of the shirt and stitch away. You can leave it like that or add hem tape. I wanted to try a different way so here is how I did it with this shirt. I pinned the ruffle inside out to the inside of the collar. So that way after it is stitched, you flip it over to the right side and it is perfect. Here’s what it looks like before it’s sewn.(remember to pin it where you want it then cut off the extra for the second ruffle layer)

And here is the outside of the shirt. You can see it is inside the collar.

Another shot of that. Now sew or serge your ruffle to the shirt.

Once you turn it right side out, here’s what it looks like.

And the back…

Sew the end of the back ruffles down.

Now take your leftover ruffle and pin it underneath your top ruffle on the front. You can make it as wide as you want. After pinning it, sew it in place.

Since I didn’t sew the ruffles all the way around, I now need to hem the middle of the back and also my arm holes. At this point I also do my bottom hem. So I use my serger and serge the seams then fold it under, then stitch it. If you don’t have a serger you can just stitch it over or use hem tape. First pin it down…

…then stitch it. Do the same for the arm holes and the bottom hem of the top.

We’re almost there!! Time to make the belt! You can use the same fabric ,as I did, or use a contrasting fabric. I used the remainder of the fabric that I had from my sleeves. Get the strips and fold them in half, sewing them inside out.

After sewing, turn the belt rightside out. (Does ANYONE have a special trick for this? A tool? It took me FOREVER to do it!!) Then sew the end of the belt seam shut and iron.

Here’s what it looks like!

I tied mine around the back, but it looked really cute tied in a bow in the front, too.

I’m really happy with the way it came out. Let me know if I can clarify anything or what you think of the tutorial. Send my pictures of any other pictures you’d like to see replicated!!

Take your shirt and cut off the sleeves and the neckline. Cut the neckline to your own desire! (Don’t throw away your sleeves!)

Now, Cut the sleeves apart so they are open. The sleeves are going to become our pleated neckline.

Iron the sleeves open so there are no wrinkles.

With your 2 open sleeves, cut 4 strips that are even in width. We are going to sew them together soon. Here’s what you should have at this point.

Take your 4 sleeves and sew them together to create one long piece. Measure your neckline and make sure you have almost double the length on the ruffle piece.

If you need to, trim the edges at this point to make sure that you have nice, straight edges.

Take the long strip and fold it inside out in half and sew it together.

After sewing, turn it right side and iron it so you have a nice, crisp seam.

Now it’s time to attach the ruffles to the neckline. Start with the shoulder and make little pleats, however frequent you want them. Pin each pleat to the shirt.

Here’s what it should look like.

Sew the pleats to the blouse.

I attached hem tape to the collar and the arm holes. If you’d prefer not to, you can just leave it with the open stitch and seam your armholes.

This is what it looks like when it’s done!

And here I am, with it belted!

..and add some jewelry….