Making the Bias Shift Top

The Bias Shift top is a new pattern by Emily Klug of Goldfinch Textile Studio. It’s a minimal waste top with two options for the hem, round neckline and cap sleeves.

View a selection of tops made by the pattern testers, made in a huge variety of fabrics including stripes, checks and prints.

The pattern comes in 18 sizes, to fit from a 30″/76.2cm bust to a 64″/162.6cm bust, with comprehensive finished garment measurements and a guide to making adjustments. If you’re a large size with a large bust, I predict this pattern will work well for you.

The Bias Shift Top has an unusual and clever construction. The instructions are very thorough indeed, with options for printing out the pattern or drawing it straight onto the fabric. There are a large number of pages for the pattern pieces and sewing which is initially daunting, but if you keep these on-screen and are happy drawing the pattern directly onto the fabric, the single page of neckline templates is the only thing that needs printing.

For fabric I chose some Japanese cotton which was given to me (L from Hallet Cove, if you’re reading this I’ve put your stash to very good use). The print is lovely and fresh.

The pattern suggests lightweight woven fabrics with no stretch and good drape, with stable fabrics recommended for easier sewing. As it’s very economical on fabric, if you have a small amount of special fabric, this could be the pattern for it. Mine was cut from a mere 89cm x 89cm.

As the Japanese cotton was too narrow (yet plentiful), I joined three pieces to make the correct size.

The construction is separated into three phases, and the first is to construct a bias tube from a perfect square. There’s a demo here of the process. Here’s my tube, all pressed and ready to go.

The second phase is to cut the pattern from the bias tube. This can be drafted directly onto the fabric (watch a demo here) which I did, using a template for the neck, or printing out the pdf pattern and laying it on top.

Drafting straight onto the fabric can be confronting if you’re not used to it! But it’s quicker than printing and taping a pdf pattern.

A neat part of this tube construction is that the seams end up looking like raglan seams coming from the neck.

Bias cut is typically quite wasteful of fabric, as the pieces are cut at 45 degrees on the rectangular fabric, leaving triangle-y shapes around the edges. But bias cut zero waste patterns have a huge fabric-saving advantage, and can sometimes be even more economical than non-bias conventional patterns. While I had the pieces flat on the table, I wondered what the fabric yield would be if they were cut conventionally?

Then it was on with phase three, the sewing.

Emily gives instructions for a beautiful clean finish on the inside as well as the outside, with flat fell seam options. The neckline is bound with a bias strip that’s in the cutting layout, and the sleeves are also bound.

As my fabric is very stable, and I’m an overlocking kinda gal, I overlocked the seams and got as far as the “let’s try it on” stage.

I like it very much! As the pattern promised, it does offer “exceptional comfort and movement”.

I’m planning to hand sew the hems, and possibly hem the sleeves the same way rather than bind them.

I intend to make this again, as Emily and I have arranged a pattern swap where we make each other’s new pattern. She got this one finished first, and mine (a skirt) will come out later in the year. I’ve gotten extra fabric to make some bias tops to match with the idea of a two-piece dress.

Come back next week for a finished top and some styling inspo.

Cheers!