Drafting a Pattern Day 1

So I don't know if you remember this first shirt I designed without a pattern. I was really excited about upcycling the skirt and making the top half and sleeves out of sheer black fabric. That shirt I just went nuts with and didn't do a muslin for. Which resulted in 8 hours of work.

This time I decided to take about 4-5 measurements and draft my own pattern FIRST and make it out of muslin before I try and tear into some fabric. It took me 3 hours to get a muslin version that fit well and about 30-45 minutes to make the actual shirt. The top has four pieces since I knew I'd be using a gauzy voile-like material: front, back, front facing, and back facing. This makes it less sheer at the top. I left the bottom loose and billowy since I wanted to add gathers.

Sewing front and back together on the right side.

Finished top half with facings - muslin is a little too thick for two facings, but it worked well.

Cutting up the bottom part which I keep calling the "skirt" in my head. I originally had a parallelogram going on but that resulted in a HUGE triangle once I put it on.

Gathering the bottom half.

Preparing to sew the bottom to the top.

Success!

Starting to cut into my fabric that I'd been saving just for this project for a month. Now here's the sad part. Yes, I made my own pattern. Yes, I made a muslin first (even ran out of muslin). So, yes, I should have known just how much fabric I needed. But I didn't. I was missing about a yard and a half to finish with this fabric.

So here's the replacement fabric. Two and a half yards of a very similar voile-like material. I wasn't sure about it at first but I chose it because it was the closest to the original fabric.

I'll have the big reveal tomorrow!