the sylvia top, a design by me

Here it is, my very first design, the Sylvia Top!
I've had this idea in my head (and in my sketchbook) for some time, and now I finallly have something to show for it. Yippee!


The Process:
I started with a basic sloper for a knit top, and attempted to use the directions in Designing Apparel Through the Flat Pattern to convert the bust dart to a curved yoke.
First, I moved the bust dart to where I wanted the yoke.

Then, I drew a curved line from the moved dart to the front of the pattern.

I intersected the curve along the line where the darts were equidistant.

Here's where I started fudging it a bit. . .the sloper was supposed to have a waist dart, and mine had just a bust dart, so I guessed the location of a waist dart and where it would intersect with the yoke


I redrew the yoke at the intersection point.

And then everything went to heck and I pretty much estimated the yoke line (the green curve).

Snip snip.

Here, I removed the bust dart.


Then, on to creating the pintucks. I traced the upper pattern piece, and measured out where I wanted the pintucks with a compass.

The placement of the pintucks:


I numbered the pieces and cut them apart.

Then, I retraced each piece with a 1/2" strip in between. Voila--the upper pattern piece!

Here is my first muslin. I didn't use a knit, and I had to cut myself out of it after squeezing it on. Eeep! Lesson learned.

The pintucks seemed ok, so I just used the yoke outline to create the second muslin.

I thought there was too much fabric in the lower piece, and not enough curve in the bust, so I subtracted more in the dart area from the lower pattern piece.

I traced the finalized pattern onto my chosen fabric (knit cotton gauze), sewed it up, and there you have it, the Sylvia Top!