DIY High Neck Crop Top | Get Thready With Me #10

Hey. Welcome to another episode of get thready
with me. Today, I’m going to show you all

how to make a high-neck sleeveless crop top.
This style of shirt is a really nice, basic,

yet flattering piece to own, and they go with
pretty much – anything.

So let’s go!

Okay, so the first thing I need to do is to
make the pattern, and to do this I pick out

a t-shirt that fits me well, is fairly tight-fitting
and is made out of stretchy fabric. You can

pretty much use any tight-fitting t-shirt
– but the most important thing is that the

t-shirt needs to have a high back of the neck.

So to make the pattern, I first turn this
t-shirt inside out. It needs to lie with the

back of the shirt (which is usually where
the tag is) facing up.

First I make a mark 2 inches away from the
neckline, on both sides, on the top of this seam.

Then, I make a mark directly underneath each armhole seam.

Then I need to work out what width the bust

measurement needs to be.
So I took my bust measurement.

Then, I took 2 inches off this measurement.
And then I divided this by 2.

This gives me 17 inches.
So, I make two marks at the same height as

the armholes, just bringing them in so that
this is 17 inches across.

Now I’m going to join up these two marks
with a curve.

Now you can either use one of these French
curve rulers if you have one, or you can just

eyeball it. With the curve, you want to kind
of follow the shape of the curve of the armhole

on the t-shirt that’s already there, but
bringing the curve in at the top so that it

meets up with your other mark.

The next step is to decide how long you want
the shirt to be. I wanted my top to be around

17 and a half inches long. I took off an inch
to allow for the turtle neck, but then added

it back on for the hem allowance at the bottom
of the shirt. So, I made a mark 17 and a half

inches below the centre of the t-shirt’s
neckline.

The bottom of the crop top is going to sit
pretty much at your waistline. So, I took

my waist measurement and then again, I minus
2 inches, and then I divided this measurement

by 2.

So, for me, I got 14 inches. So I’m going
to make this bottom line 14 inches long, by

connecting up these 3 marks in a straight
line.

And then lastly I need to connect up these
two lines.

And this is what my basic top pattern is going
to look like.

Now I need to transfer this pattern onto some
paper.

I fold the shirt exactly in half and I put
a piece of paper inside, matching up the edges

of the paper with the fold.

Then, using some pins, I press through the
shirt, following the chalk lines, all the

way around.
This creates small holes on the paper below.

Then, all I need to do is simply connect these
small holes together just like a join-the-dot picture.

And I cut this out. See! They're the same
size! Woo hoo!

Okay, so this is the only pattern piece that
I'm going to need, and it’s going to be

used for both the front and the back of the
shirt.

Now that's done, on to fabrics. The fabric
that I’m making my shirt out of is a very

stretchy, 2-way stretch ribbed jersey, but
you can pretty much use any stretchy jersey fabric.

To copy my pattern onto the fabric, I fold
the fabric in half, and then I place the pattern

piece on top, with this edge on the fold.

Now because I don’t trust myself to cut
it out accurately while it’s just on top

like that, I pin it on, trace around it, then
remove the pattern piece, put pins in to hold

the two layers in place, and then I cut around
the traced lines.

And when I unfold it, I have this!
Now I simply need to do this once more, so

that I'll have 2 pieces.

Now that I have 2 identical pieces, I sandwich
them together,

and then I sew the two pieces together at
the sides and at the shoulders.

And it’s also a good idea to pin pin pin
when you’re working with stretchy fabric.

To sew the front and back pieces together,
I am using a zig zag stitch. Some extra tips

to make your life easier is to also use a
thread that’s very similar to the colour

of your fabric, and to use a ball-point jersey
needle, instead of a regular sewing machine needle.

Once these two pieces are sewn together, I
turn the top inside out so that the seams

are on the inside.

And it’s a good idea to try it on at this
stage, to make sure that it fits alright,

and that you can get your head through the
neckhole, etc.

Now I’m going to make the "cuff" for the
neck. I measure the circumference of the neck

hole, which is 10 inches.
I then take HALF an inch off that measurement,

and so I cut out a strip which is only 9 and
a half inches long.

It’s also 3 inches wide, but if you want
more of a turtle neck, you can increase this,

or if you LESS of a turtle neck then decrease
this and make the strip thinner.

Anyway, after cutting this rectangle out I
fold it in half like this, and then I sew

down here, with a half inch seam allowance.

Then, I turn the piece inside-out so that
the seam is on the inside, and then fold it

in half length-ways like this, to give myself
this kind of cuff… thing.

Then, I place 4 pins equally around the neck
hole. So, one pin on each shoulder seam, and

one in the centre front and one in the centre
back. I do the same thing on the neck cuff,

with 4 evenly-spaced pins.
I’m going to match these pins up when I

sew the two pieces together.

To sew the cuff on, I’m first removing this
doobly-doo from my machine so that the cuff

will fit over the top.

Then, I slide the neck cuff on, with the raw
edges facing this way, and the neckline of

the shirt goes underneath it. So, the cuff
is going to be sewn onto the right side of

the shirt.

Once I match up the raw edges, I sew the neck
cuff onto the shirt! I do this by using a

zig-zag stitch, and at the same time stretching
the fabric underneath so each set of pins

basically match up.

When I get to the next set of pins, I remove
them, and then I do the same thing – I stitch

along the edge, stretching the fabrics so
that the next set of pins line up.

And I do this all around the neckhole until
I reach the point where I started from.

And – that's the neckline done!

For the armholes, I’m basically going to
do the exact same thing, however the strips

are going to be a little bit thinner.
I measure the armhole circumference (which

for me, is 15 inches), then this time I subtract
1 whole inch from this measurement. So,

I cut out a strip that’s 14 inches long and
1.5 inches wide.

Then I do the exact same thing that I did
for the neck. I fold this strip in half, sew

here, turn it around, fold it in half lengthways
to get a cuff, quarter it with pins, quarter

the armhole evenly with pins, and I sew them
together, raw edges matching, with the cuff

on the right side of the shirt. And again,
I stretch the fabric while I sew so that each

set of pins matches up with each other.

Now the last thing that I need to do is to
hem the bottom of the shirt.

So, I turn the shirt inside out, and then
I fold the bottom up about inch, and then

sew across it.
Now I recently got myself this special sewing

foot called a “walking foot”. This thing
makes sewing with stretchy fabrics A DREAM.

Basically, it helps feed all the fabric through
evenly to stop the hem from ruffling when

you sew it. If you don’t own a walking foot,
however, I recommend sewing the hem using

a piece of paper underneath, just like I did
in this video here.

Here’s a close up of the walking foot in
action.

And – look at my nice, flat hem!

So, I finished the top - but then I tried
it on a decided that the armholes were slightly

too tight. So I actually wanted to try and
make the top again, but modify the pattern

slightly to make the armholes larger.
So, back to my pattern - all I simply did

was to make my armhole a little bit larger
by extending this curve.

And, I tried again, this time using the same
fabric but in black. And I’m not going to

film the whole thing again because all the
steps I used are exactly the same as before!

SO – that’s it!

[MUSIC: electronic dance music]

So, yeah, that's it. That was actually surprisingly
easy to do. The second top that I made - so,

this one - actually only took me about an
hour to make, and that was because I wasn't

filming, I was sewing at my normal sewing
speed. So, yeah, you can pretty much whip

up a bunch of these in all different colours
in no time. And while it's a really nice basic

shirt to own that'll go with a lot of things,
you can also do some more interesting things

with it, with say T-shirt transfers, or fabric
paints, or embroidery, or using different

fabrics for the cuffs and the collar, to make
some really interesting tops!

And - I'll see you all for my next video.
Bye!

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