Every garment sewist wants interesting top patterns, but they’re as scarce as hen’s teeth. Here’s one that’s totally mind-bending, but actually very simple to make, and it’s bias-cut. Even better, because it’s a minimal-waste pattern, it’s a great way to use small pieces of precious fabric.
I’ve never seen anything quite like Goldfinch Textile Studio’s Bias Shift Top. How, exactly, does a square of fabric become a bias-cut top? That’s the magic!
This pattern requires something of a mental leap even for a seasoned sewist, but don’t be afraid. The instructions are extremely thorough and walk you through all the steps. Read them carefully. Trust them! Your sewing journey will be unlike any other — but it will all make sense in the end.
Pre-construction:
The instructions may seem a little intimidating, with multiple “phases” of pattern design and construction, but the process is actually quite simple. I thought of it as “pre-construction”, when you’re preparing the fabric before cutting out, and “construction”, i.e. the actual sewing.
First things first. You start with a square of fabric.
Cut it in half diagonally, then sew two sides together. The resulting parallelogram (below) is made into a giant bias tube — imagine you’re making an enormous piece of continuous bias binding!
Squash the tube flat, and it’s a square again, now in two layers.
Then draft your pattern right on there and cut out the pattern pieces as you normally would. But the garment will be on the bias! How cool is that?
While bias cuts are often extremely wasteful of fabric, this is a low-waste pattern so you’ll have just a handful of scraps left over. You get the absolute maximum out of your yardage.
That made it the perfect excuse to use one of our jamdani handloom weaves. They’re a light weight that’s perfect for tops. But the intricate weaving process, which requires a great deal of skill from the weaver, does make them expensive. (Curious how these are made? Learn more about jamdani fabrics here.)
Jamdani weaves can be used with either side facing out. You decide what’s the right side for you. I chose to use the side where you can see the tuft-like ends of the handwoven motifs.
Sometimes bias-cut garments seem to shrink because of the way gravity pulls the grainline downwards. That's what makes bias-cuts look slinky when made of silky fabric. I knew it wouldn’t be a problem with this fabric, though. Although my measurements fell in between sizes on this pattern, I chose to cut out the smaller size. The jamdani has enough cottony body that it didn’t become too clingy. The fit is great.
Construction:
The mind-bending part of this pattern was in the preparation. Other than that, the top is simplicity itself — just two pieces, a couple of facings, and a tie. It looks more complicated due to one ingenious element: the seams you make when joining the triangular pieces in the pre-construction ends up forming a raglan-like detail at the shoulders. The actual construction is totally straightforward, although if you’re not used to working with bias cuts, you’ll want to take your time. Don't be tempted to skip the stay-stitching — it's there to keep the bias edges from stretching out of shape, and it really does help.
Following the instructions, I drafted the pattern right onto the fabric. This felt very liberating! (There is an option to print the pattern pieces if you prefer.)
The shoulder seams are sewn first. Before finishing them, I added tiny strips of selvedge to the seams in order to stabilize the bias. After all, the shoulders support the entire garment, so we don't want them to stretch out of shape. The selvedge strips are hidden inside a flat fell seam finish.
My sewing machine was acting up when it was time to finish the shoulder seams. I didn’t feel like dealing with it then, and chose to do a hand-stitched finish instead. It’s just a running stitch by hand for for the second pass of the flat-fell seam. This is what I did on my Calyx Top, which you can read about here. It doesn’t take long and it’s pretty fun! And this little detail turned out to get a lot of compliments.
Because I don’t care for round necks, I decided to make a boat neck. After the shoulder seams were done, I popped the top over my head and pinned where I wanted the new neckline to be. Then I stay-stitched the new seamline and cut away the excess fabric.
The bias strip used for the neckline binding is cut from the edge of the bias square made during pre-construction. My bias square had turned out a little smaller than it should have (I’m not the world’s most accurate stitcher) so my bias strip was a little narrow, but it still worked. Here you can see it basted in place:
You can fold the bias binding towards the inside of the neck, or leave it visible at the edge, as you prefer. I kept it visible as a design detail. It's finished on the inside with tiny fell stitches that are invisible from the front of the garment.
For the side seams I did the visible hand-stitched finish again, like on the shoulders. DMC floche, a soft embroidery thread with a matte finish, is my favorite for this. Don't forget to clip the underarm curve before finishing the seams.
When the initial fabric square was cut out during pre-construction, there were a few straight-grain edge pieces leftover. These end up becoming sleeve facings and a front drawstring. When finishing the sleeves, I found that my stay-stitching was a little too tight and the bias didn’t fall nicely. No problem — just clip the stitching here and there and pull gently. This allows the fabric to relax slightly before the binding is sewn on.
Then I finished the sleeve binding just the same way as the neck binding. Below, you can see the binding being felled to the inside of the sleeve.
Finishing touches:
A detail that I love about this pattern is the button at the neckline opening. Even though my boatneck was wide enough that I didn’t actually need the opening, I would never pass up a chance for a button and loop. In fact, this was the perfect opportunity to use one lone, lorn mother-of-pearl button that has been in my button box for as long as I can remember. It probably came off my mother’s doll’s clothes, many of which were made by her aunt using exquisite bits of her own 1920s wardrobe. I like to think of this tiny connection to Aunt Mamlee.
The button is fastened with a little loop. I love any excuse to use silk buttonhole twist! Because my wardrobe gravitates towards a certain color scheme, it just so happened that the perfect color of twist was already in my sewing cabinet.
To my vintage-inspired eye, button loops are one of those details that makes a garment look beautifully finished. I made the loop the traditional way, covered with buttonhole stitches. Did you know that the little knot on the outer edge is called a "purl"?
One more fun detail in this pattern is the optional drawstring that gently pulls in the front hem. I hate folding long strips, as specified in the instructions; I can never do it accurately. Instead I sewed a long tube and turned it inside out.
The jamdani is quite lightweight so I used a fine cotton thread (#60, or Aurifil #50) for all the construction seams. It's white because I didn't have a good color match. For the little bit of machine topstitching (making the drawstring casing) I used a regular cotton thread (Mettler #50) that was a better match with the fabric.
Miscellaneous Thoughts:
You may never have done anything quite like the pre-construction before, so take your time and be patient! The pattern booklet includes directions to make a mini model that will help you visualize the process. At a New York Textile Month event that we hosted in the shop recently, Emily walked participants through the pattern with these paper models. It really helped us grasp the origami-like construction.
If you’re not familiar with working with bias cuts, this pattern is a good introduction. The most important thing when sewing is simply to handle your project with care. Pulling the fabric gently as you stitch can add a bit of ease and flexibliity into the seam. A small stitch length helps, too.
Emily named this pattern the Bias Shift Top because she was thinking about whether something as fabric-intensive as a bias cut could be combined with the (apparently contradictory) principles of low-waste sewing. But in truth this pattern shifts the mind of the maker, too. The mental leap is half the fun!
This was one of the most intriguing projects I’ve made in decades of sewing. For me, the result is also more or less the perfect top. It's interesting, quick to make, and comfortable. It looks great both tucked and, thanks to the clever front drawstring, untucked. I’m already planning to make another with a Brahma Karma block print next spring, and probably several more after that.
(Full disclosure: Emily and I are friends, but I try to be unbiased :) I truly think her patterns are ingenious.)
Find the pattern at Goldfinch Textile Studio.
Shop jamdani weaves here.