The Best Free Clothing Pattern *GOAT

It takes less than a yard of fabric.

You can make out of woven or knit (drapier fabric is better with the long sleeve version).

It's a well balanced shape with great proportions.

ITS FREE

https://fancytigercrafts.com/collections/free-patterns/products/one-hour-top

photo from Fancy Tiger website

My latest version of it has a scooped hem, minimal cuffs and a smaller, bound neck opening.

I am prompted to mention this pattern again after seeing numerous PDF patterns for $10 and up that are no better and give no better instructions or results than this one.

NUMEROUS.

Any Tina, Trina or Augustina can publish a PDF pattern for a boxy top if they like.

But this one is really good.

A few variations on this.

This one (inside out to show seams) got a turtleneck added to it

The dart takes some of the bulk out of it in a heavier fabric.  You can add a cowl or a turtle or a v-neck. You could extend it into a tshirt dress. This thing rocks in a crepe. The Lady Elroy knit crepe will give you a top in a yard or less (the following  ones took 3/4 yard, and for an expensive piece of yardage, a great 'sew the precious' project.

Just squeaks by on 3/4" yd. Pieced cuffs and neck trim came from scraps at the top and the sides.

This is what I had left from the bike shirt

This crepe knit needs to dry flat and be reshaped like a sweater; I swear that hem was even when I made it.

I add Hug Snug for stay tape at the back of the neck and the shoulders to prevent it from stretching out

To avoid headlights, with this fabric, I marked the bust point on the pattern

You could buy the fabric from them to support this amazing freebie!

https://fancytigercrafts.com/collections/jersey-knits/products/leafy-tropics

https://fancytigercrafts.com/products/bridal-boquet

https://fancytigercrafts.com/collections/jersey-knits

I get nothing from these folks except this amazing pattern. And so can you.

Pattern Drafting and thinking about sleeves

The goal is to make a one piece pattern similiar to the Tea Garden Tee/Miyake blouse. This is where I've left off the attached collar because I can only move one thing at a time.

I've taken my bodice block and a sleeve that almost works and laid them out to trace over them to make one big pattern piece. The pennies are there to hold the sheets down (they were just working with outlining a japanese sewing book pattern, so they were available)

So you see that overlap at the armceye? That rhomboidal one?

Oh come on. you know where this is going by now.

The overlap should be the shape for the gusset piece (minus seam allowances)

(this is why you draft without seam allowances. And why I need a big sign over the table that says : HAVE YOU ADDED THE SEAM ALLOWANCES TO THE FINAL PATTERN PIECES??? because I do, yes i do forget to do that)

So there it is. I did add the front facing overlap pieces.

And here it is in the $35 a yard embossed velvet

So this is all cute, but if you recall, this was a wadder.

Because I forgot to put in the gusset and add the seam allowances back in.

There are no photos, but let me paint you a picture: I raise an arm and there's a breeze on my stomach.

Oh.

Love those pins. Now they need a new jacket.

I have some more velvet from District Fabric ...

Christmas Flannel 2016/1960s

Look at those people! There's my parents! My mom made her own dresses! There's my sister! I'm the goof in the front; I'm the baby! They are so cute! That table top artificial tree! What I wouldn't give for one like that!

 Flannel jammies have been in my family since forever.

My stepgrandmother had one pattern, and she made us new flannel ruffled nightgowns from it every year. It is the only thing she sewed for us. She was not real great with children; she wasn't a bad person, she was a great wife to a very cranky man. I joke that my mother was raised by wolves. They certainly did not let my stepgrandmother raise her, and I know that hurt both of them. There was a certain remove in these nightgowns. More of an idea of what theoretical children might wear.

I am pretty sure that I am wearing the hand-me-downs from my sister in some of these photos.  They never wore out, because they were just too heavy and stiff to wear to bed.

But they did get photo ops.

These are, for the most part, the only photos I have of me and my sister as kids. We just didn't take photos, so my grandmother was the photographer of record on the annual Christmas visit. 

Mmm leopard print slipper boots! And Barbie wigs. And Barbie's speedboat (floor at right) We had Barbie's Corvette and her Dreamhouse as well. Barbie did alright by us.

Yes, I had the same haircut in every photo. 

I prefer to work in a less ruffled idiom, the one piece pajama bottoms.

They have not agreed to be photographed for the blog in pajamas, but I do have previous photos of them in them.

I redraft the pattern every year, though the teen men just get longer, not wider. The spouse is pretty skinny, but not 17/19 year old skinny. 

Nevertheless, they are cut on the baggy side.

College Teen has asked for pockets to be added to his. For his phone when he goes to class in them.

(I had forgotten about that aspect of college)

But I am proud that this is the first pair he'd wear out of the house.

That's kind of an odd compliment, but I'll take it. 

Yes, I bought the bolt. Only 6yds left though, on 44". Shrank to 5 1/2, but very very soft and fluffy

I got two by doing single layer cuts. I milked one more set using the selvage pieces

Button in the front for easy dressing

Three men, three pair. The one here that wore his right away, and asked for it to be washed right away: he's staying in the will.

For a JoAnn's  novelty flannel, it washed up to be surprisingly and absurdly soft and fluffy. I have about 5/8 of a yard leftover, that will appear as a lining somewhere. 

Because fluffy.

And Star Wars.

Princess Leia, you get better soon!

More Gussets

I do get into a weird tunnel vision now and then. 

I want to come up with a simple, flat, one or two piece woven shirt pattern that has cut on sleeves. And it would be helpful to add a gusset to deal with the usual pinchy gathering at the armpit.

It makes a weird level of sense.

I mean, it adds back in the curves you lose when you take out the separate sleeve.

Now all I need to do is actually finish this pattern draft up. But all I do is spend more time researching it.

Live in fear of an obssession.....

http://fabrickated.com/2015/10/05/embroidered-blouse-making-it-up/
gusset trouble

http://i2.wp.com/fabrickated.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/IMG_9156.jpg

Sewing Bee gusset