Oval Top Tutorial {from a top}

Hello again!

More with the sewing...

It is Spring here and one of the fashion trends I noticed are these gorgeous floaty tops. It is almost a circle but more like an oval- with two side seams and a hole for the head. When I first saw them in the shops, I thought, " I can make that". Even a total amateur at clothes making, like me, can get this one right! I didn't want to pay a small fortune and only have one of these tops! So I bought one, being a bit unsure how to go about it from scratch without some sort of pattern. I used the bought top as my "pattern". 
This is the bought top below.

 

Now that I can say that I successfully managed and it came out just fine, I will be making more of these. They are perfect for spring and summer-light, floaty, cool. Just my style.

And of course at a fraction of the price! 

I bought a meter of fabric (I think it was at least 150cm wide) For only R55. ($6)In the shops these tops are costing around R250-R300 ($30-$36).

Okay so I going to share my very limited, first-time at doing this, tutorial with you. This tutorial is for making a top from a bought top like this as your pattern.

step one:

 

Fold your fabric with wrong sides together. My fabric was about 150cm wide. I Then took the bought top and laid on top of my working fabric. As you can see, *blush* I didn't iron my fabric first, but it's probably a good idea to iron it first! I did smooth it out and made sure as I pinned the bought fabric to the working fabric, that there were no creases.

step two:



*blush again at the creased fabric!* Once you have pinned your bought top to your working fabric, cut it out. You should have two pieces (as you folded it in half to begin with before cutting). Now you will see that the top neck line needs to be lower than the back neck line...

So take a piece of paper or card and insert it into the bought top's neckline. With a pencil draw along the neckline, tracing it onto the paper. This is your template.

 

step three: 

Before removing it from the bought fabric,make a mark on each side of the template where the edge of fabric (shoulder part) starts to curve. Take your template and cut along the line you drew. 
Then place your template on your working fabric, lining up the edge marks with your neckline edges and pin.

step four:

  Once you have pinned the edges of the template to the fabric, fold the piece in half and pin it. Now you can cut along the curve, following the edge of the template.

 

step five:

Now you have your front and back piece. The front is obviously the one with the lower neckline. Pin your pieces together, right sides together. Stitch the shoulder seams (about 1-1.5cm).

step six:

Now you can measure half a centimeter on the neck line and fold down and pin. Then iron it flat.

Once you have ironed it, fold it over again another 0.5-1cm and iron and then stitch. I also did a zig-zag but if you have an over-locker machine, this would be ideal.

So now your shoulder and neck seams are done. Now you can fold over 1cm and pin all the way around the full oval side seams and stitch. (again, I did a straight stitch first and then went over it with a zig-zag on the edge of the seam).

step seven:

With all the hems/seams done, all that is left to do is the short stitch up the sides( for the arm openings). So fold your fabric with the wrong sides facing each other. (so, you will have the top now as if you were about to put it on)

Lay your working fabric flat out, smoothing it out. Take your bought top and place it over, smoothing it out. then pin through the bought fabric at the top and bottom where the side seam starts and ends. Fold the bought fabric along the where it is stitched and then on the working fabric, pin next to it. (picture below)

Here you can see in the picture below that I now removed the bought fabric once all my pins are in place. With a pin in place to show where I start stitching, and a pin in place to show where I need to stop stitching. Stitch a straight line. Do this on the left and right hand side.

step eight:
And your top is finished! All you have to do is iron the seams flat and wear it! 

 

I just love the flowing sleeves! Whats great about these tops too is that all you need to wear under it is a strappy top (if it's a bit see through) and they are great with leggings and Jeans or a cute pair of shorts.

 

Thanks for looking and I hope this tutorial will help someone who is not clued up like me about sewing clothes! I would love to hear from you and please feel free to drop me a line!

*pinning is fine as long as the pin links back to my site*