High Low Shirt Tutorial and Pattern

Today I’m going to share a high low shirt tutorial and share the free pattern. This is a really easy shirt to sew (I will be making more) as long as you take a few things into consideration.

A few caveats:

• Pattern is drafted for a size small (34″ bust). The darts will have to be adjusted for a fuller bust – luckily you can find a great tutorial here on how to do a bust adjustment. 
• I have rounded shoulders. You can see them very clearly below. If you do not have rounded shoulders, you will want to add about 1/2″ to the front shoulder edge. How do you know if you have rounded or straight shoulders? Stand with your back against the wall. If the backs of your arms touch the wall too, you have straight shoulders. If not, you have rounded shoulders. This is a skeletal thing, not necessarily a posture thing.
• The finished shirt measurements are about 35″ bust, 40.5″ hips and 26″ from neck to finished edge in the back.
• I DO NOT recommend using quilting cotton for this shirt – it won’t flow. I used a polyester blend woven fabric. Make sure whatever you use has some drape to it. You could probably also make this out of knit if you wanted to.
• Finally, because of the things listed above I highly recommend you make a muslin with the front, back, and at least one sleeve before cutting into the good fabric.

So, are we good? Ok. To make this you’ll need:

• The pattern. If you’re going to use any of my free patterns, I ask that you follow this blog. Fair enough? Thanks. You can download the pattern here: High-Low-Pattern-by-MellySews Please note that all my patterns are licensed for personal use only (no selling items made from this without a limited production license) and by downloading you are agreeing to this license.
• 1 1/4 yd of 58/60″ wide fabric.

Instructions

1. Print and assemble pattern according to the instructions on the first page. Cut out your fabric according to the directions on the pattern pieces. IN ADDITION TO THE PIECES ON THE PATTERN, YOU WILL NEED 24 INCHES OF DOUBLE FOLD BIAS TAPE TO FINISH THE NECKLINE. You can make this out of the same fabric as the shirt as I did.

2. Sew the bust darts.

3. Sew the shirt front to the shirt back at the shoulders, right sides together.

4. Sew in the sleeves.

5. Sew the underarm seam and the side seams all in one seam.

6. With the shirt inside out, unfold and pin the bias tape around the neckline. You will fold the raw short edge of the bias tape under when you begin, and overlap the tape at the end. The edge of the bias tape should be even with the edge of the neckline. Stitch in the fold closest to the neck edge on the bias tape.

7. Turn the shirt right side out. Fold the bias tape to the outside of the neck and pin, covering your seamline from step 6. Topstitch in place, close to the edge  of the tape. The folded short edge should cover any raw edges, and you will want to stitch this piece down as well.

8. Hem the sleeves and bottom edge of the shirt.

Wear your new shirt!

If you enjoyed this post or have any questions, I’d love a comment to let me know. And if you have any friends you think might like to make their own, please use the buttons below to share! And if you make one, I’d love to see it – please consider adding it to my Flickr pool

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