[intro piano music plays]
Welcome to another Get Thready With Me episode, the series where I sew something from scratch
and I take you all along with me for the ride.
So, I live in Australia.
I used to think that was obvious from my accent, but a lot of people often seem to think that I’m
either from the UK or the USA?!
Anyway - I live in Australia, and it is very hot in Australia, and I don’t tolerate the
heat very well.
So I decided to make something to wear that has as little fabric in it as possible in
it, while still being cute and relatively comfy, so I decided on a making a tie-front
crop top.
This was in-part inspired by seeing a lot of these kinds of tops in stores and in ads
from cheap fast-fashion retailers.
And when I showed off my first couple of attempts on Instagram, a lot of you were keen to see
how I made it.
Also, it’s pretty much just entirely uses straight stitches - in fact, yeah, I think
it's entirely straight stitches - and made with rectangular pieces of fabric, so it’s
a really good project for beginners project, and also an easy afternoon sew.
For my top I used a non-stretchy cotton, and a satin for the lining, but feel free to use
stretch fabrics if you want to make a swimsuit, or a comfy jersey-fabric top!
I needed 3 measurements to start: Measurement 1 is around the bust, and then
using my measuring tape, or you could also use a piece of string, I added the length
of “ties” to the front.
The length of the “ties” here is approximately the length that I want the top’s ties to
be!
Measurement 2 is how WIDE I want my top to be, I measured from about where my armpits
are to down just underneath my breasts, but you could make it even longer if you wanted.
And I added 1 inch (2.5 cm) to this.
Measurement 3 is estimating the length of the straps – if you’re not sure about
this, go with about 25 inches long (that’s about 64 cm) and you should have MORE than
enough.
Then I cut out 4 pieces of fabric!
The first was the main piece, a rectangle that was measurement 1 by measurement 2;
The lining piece, which was the exact same dimensions;
And two straps, which are long, thin rectangles, which are measurement 3, the strap length,
by 3 inches wide.
BY THE WAY: If you have a bust that’s larger than mine – I am currently about a C-cup
– stick around ‘til the end for some modifications that you should make to help this fit!
So according to that plan, I cut out my main piece from this floral paisley fabric.
I also cut out an identical-sized piece of lining, using a satin lining fabric.
And again from the floral paisley, I cut out those 2 identical-sized straps.
And they are the 4 pieces that are needed – time to get sewing!
First, I got to work on the straps.
I folded each strap in half length-ways, right-sides-together, and I ironed these down, making a nice, crisp
crease down the fold of the fabric.
Then I sewed each strap into a tube by sewing down HERE, along the raw edges, with about
a half-inch seam allowance.
And I used a straight stitch for this.
And this is optional, but if you want your seams to be nice or if your fabric frays easily,
you can zig-zag stitch over the edges, or do what I’m doing here, which is to snip
them close to the seams using pinking shears.
Then I turned each strap the right way around using a bodkin.
And then I gave them another iron to make sure they were laying nice and flat, and I
set them aside for later.
Onto the main piece of fabric now: first I folded it in half and I made a mark in the
crease of that middle-fold with some chalk, so that I knew exactly where the mid-point
of the fabric is.
Once I had the half-way point marked-out, I laid it out flat on a table.
So this halfway point will be exactly where the middle of my back is, and I’m going
to use this mid-point to figure out where the straps need to go!
So, another measurement that’s required is your bust measurement - without the ties
- which you should do without a bra if you’re planning on going bra-less with this crop
top.
So, I took that measurement and then I divided this measurement by 4 to get a quarter of
my bust measurement.
For example, for me, my bust measurement is 36 inches, divided by 4 that gives me 9 inches.
And then, from the centre-point on the fabric, I made two marks 9 inches out from that centre
mark on both sides, like this.
Then I divided this um, quarter number by 2 again, to get 1/8th of my bust measurement,
which for me is 4.5 inches.
I got that by dividing the 9 inches from before by 2.
And then I drew marks 4.5 inches out from each of those 9-inch marks, and THIS is where
each front strap will be sewed on!
Measuring it out like this should ensure that the straps will sit in exactly the place we
want them to sit.
I put pins in these two spots, so that I would remember where the straps were going, and
then, making sure the main piece of fabric was facing right-sides up, I placed one strap
each where these pins are, and I pinned them in place onto the main fabric like THIS.
And then next, I sewed them onto the main piece like THIS.
Now, the straps needed to be moved out of the way for the next step, which is attaching
the lining, so I folded each strap up and I pinned it onto the centre of the main piece,
to keep them out of the way.
Then I placed the lining piece of fabric over the top, matching up each piece, right-sides
together.
I clipped them together with some sewing clips to hold them in place, and then on each end
of this long strip, I chopped off a right-angled triangle like this.
I took the fabric I chopped off one end and used it as a template on the other end to
make sure that both ends would be identical.
And then, I put some fabric clips on these ends as well.
The next step is to sew the lining to the main piece; make absolutely sure they’re
facing right-sides together!
And I sewed the fabrics together all the way around like this.
But I left a small gap a couple-of-inches long at the bottom here!
And here’s just a closer-up view of how it needs to be sewn!
Then, I turned this whole piece right-sides out, through that gap that I left!
And I also un-pinned the straps from the fabric as well.
To push out all the edges, I just used a long ruler with pointy edges.
You could also use a pen, scissors, your fingers, anything that helps get it the right way around.
Then, I hand-sewed the small gap closed, by folding the edges inwards and sewing it shut
like this.
And then I gave the whole piece a good ironing, before top-stitching along all the edges,
to make sure that the lining wouldn’t peek out from behind the main fabric.
The last step is attaching the straps to the BACK, which I did by first putting the top
on.
tying it up at the front, and then I drew chalk onto the straps, and onto the top, where
they needed to be sewn on.
This is a lot easier to do if you get someone to help you!
It's really difficult to draw chalk onto your back [strained voice] like... this!
Then I sewed each strap on like this, on the inside of the top, and then I made the ends
of the strap all neat by folding them over twice, and then doing a straight stitch over
the ends.
This step is optional depending on how it fits, but I found that on me, the top was
a bit loose at the back, down the bottom.
The centre of the top is the centre back, and I made a dart by drawing a straight line
down the centre of the lining, making a dart that’s about 1-inch wide by 5 inches tall,
sewing along THIS line to create the dart, and I cut off the excess fabric with some
pinking-shears to avoid fraying.
Annnd it may have not been the perfect method, but that’s the top done!
Now all that's left is to tie it up at the front, and it looks like this!
[music plays]
I made this top out of a few different fabrics and I also made matching sets for the other
two tops.
To go with this gingham top, I made a matching skirt, using my half-circle-skirt tutorial,
but I increased the length so that it became a big, flowy, ankle-length skirt.
I also used my 30-minute-skirt tutorial to make a simple gathered skirt, from just this
rectangle of leftover fabric, to go with this paisley orange top!
I wanted to add a small note to this project before we finish up: now I am only able to
test out this tutorial on myself, so I’m not 100% sure if this exact method will work
for someone who is either smaller than me, or plus-sized, or someone who has a bigger
chest than I do -
However I am pretty sure that it WILL work for people who are smaller than I am.
But for people who are more busty: I do have some ideas of how you would make it fit better,
but keep in mind that I wasn’t able to test this out!
OKAY, the first is to use a stretch fabric instead of a non-stretchy woven fabric.
The stretch of the fabric will just help everything fit better.
The second tip, especially if using a non-stretch fabric, is to add darts or gathers to create
a better fit.
To do that, this is roughly the method that you would use:
Cut out a strip of fabric that's length is measurement 1, which was the first measurement
we took.
You can add a couple of inches to this length to allow for darts later on.
Now what's different from the main tutorial is the width of the top, which is going to
be measurement 2, which is the desired width of top +1 inch… and then add another.. let’s
say 2 inches to this.
This can be increased, the larger your size.
I’ve included a link in the description that’s meant to help you figure out how
much larger you should make the front piece as opposed to the back piece and how big the
darts should be.
But it includes a LOT of math, so, good luck.
ANYWAY -
Then cut the strip into 3 pieces.
The first piece we'll cut off will be the BACK piece, so you want to cut off one piece
from this strip that is the length of your standard bust measurement, divided by 2, plus
1 inch.
Cut a 2 inch (that’s 5cm) strip off the top of that rectangle, and discard of that
strip.
Then cut the front piece into two equal halves.
Both of these will make up the front of the top.
Then, create and sew darts on opposite sides of each “front” piece.
If you added 2 inches before, then the darts should be 2 inches wide.
What we want to do here is make each front piece the same width as the back piece.
The larger your bust is, generally, the bigger the dart!
Alternatively, you could also create gathers.
Then, sew the front pieces to either side of the back piece, right-sides-together, with
a half-inch seam allowance, and repeat these exact same steps for the lining.
And then all the other steps should be the same as the rest of this tutorial!
Step number 3 for making a better fit: You might also want to add slightly thicker straps,
increase the strap width from 3 inches to 4 or 5 inches.
So I wanted to ask you guys, if you are comfortable with doing so, if you try this tutorial out,
post your experiences and post roughly what size you are, and if you made any adjustments
or any alterations, or if you had any difficulties, so that you can help other people in the community!
Let’s all help each other learn!
Thank you all SO much for watching!
I’m really excited to be back from my little January break, and I so many more ideas of
things to sew, which hopefully I'll be able to get around to in the next couple of months.
So, leave a comment down below, let's catch up!
Let me know what you've been up to, and I will see you all next time, bye!
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