Tutorial: Motivation top

Note: I put this all up on burdastyle also.

A few people have asked for more details on how I made the Motivation shirt, so I’ll try to explain it all here.  I didn’t think to take pictures as I go, so bear with me!  

There are really two parts to making this, as there is with any project; first you have to develop your pattern, and then actually construct the piece.  

A note on fabric choices.

I used sheer chiffon for this project, which necessitated several layers of fabric, for decency’s sake.  If your fabric isn’t sheer, you can save yourself a lot of work by eliminating the bottom two layers.

Making the pattern

Take a tank top that fits the way that you want your new shirt to fit and fold it in half so that the side seams are touching.  If you don’t have a tank top that fits this description, a plain tshirt should also work.  Lay the shirt on to your pattern paper so that the front of the shirt, where it’s folded in half, is on the edge of the paper.Make sure to mark where the side seam was, dividing the top in to front and back.  Trace the shirt on to the paper, so that you have a shape that looks like this:

Move the back shoulder strap to the center or the back of the pattern, and extend the back to accommodate the strap.  

Take the top 5 or so inches of the back strap and cut it off.  Rotate it about 40 degrees towards the front of the shirt, and tape it back in to place, and smooth out the curves.  Add seam allowance to the tops of the straps on both sides.

Round of the bottom corner of the back.

Cutting the pieces

Fold your fabric in half.  Lay the pattern piece so that the front edge is on the fold, and cut one full piece.  This pieces should have a full front and a back on both sides.

Skip this if you aren’t making the bottom layers.  

Leaving your fabric folded in half, lay your patter piece down away from the folded edge with room for rotating the pattern and cutting out a full front piece.  The finished pieces should have a full front and a back on only one side.  Be careful not to only cut half the front!

For both versions:

Cut a billion inches of bias tape from remaining fabric.  

Sewing the shirt

If you’re making the version with 3 layers, apply the binding tape to the two 3/4 layers from the armpit to the top of the back curve.  

Sew the shoulder seams of the top layer together.  Make sure that they cross in the back.  

Pin the two bottom layers to the top layer along the neckline and arms.  This way, you can match the shoulder seams together and ensure that the back petals aren’t twisted.  Keeping the necklines pinned together to prevent twisting, sew the shoulder seams of the two bottom layers with wrong sides together, so that the seams of the top and bottom layers face together.

Pick a spot on the edge of your garment that isn’t finished yet.  Any old spot.  Start pinning your bias tape around.  You should be able to pin continuously around every unfinished edge, provided you have enough bias tape and enough pins.  Be careful to catch every layer in the bias tape.  

Sew down the tape, and you’re done!