Fabulous Free Pattern Friday

Well, it's still Friday, at least it is in Chicago. So I'm close to being back on track. At least I'm not calling this FFPF on Tuesday. Thanks so much for putting up with me.

Today I'm posting a very easy top that is nothing but 6 rectangles. I'm calling it the 

Draped Poet's Blouse 

There is a front and back yoke, 2 ties and 2 long rectangles that are folded over to form the front and back. This top is made out of chiffon.

The long rectangles are gathered into the yokes.

You can see the opening in the back when I pull back the one side of the rectangle in the picture below.

In the picture below I am showing that the bottom of the front and back is a long rectangle.

It is folded over at the hem and the 2 ends are sewn into the yoke. This forms the drape at the bottom of the top. Be sure to choose a fabric that is the same on both sides as you can see that when the one side is folded up, the opposite side of the fabric shows.

We did something very similar to this when we did the Draped Front Ballerina Top. It is pictured below.

We'll begin with the yoke. To determine the width of your yoke measure from one arm to the other across your back. My measurement was 14". Draw a rectangle the is the measurement across your shoulders, 14" in my case by 5". This is a little deeper than we will want the final yoke to measure. 

Now find the middle of your rectangle.

At the center measure down 1" and measure over 3" on either side. Draw in your back neckline. If your neck is a larger neck, you may want to cut the opening a little bigger. This can be determined after you sew the yoke together at the shoulder seams.

Because our shoulders slope from our neck to our arm, measure down 1" on each end of your rectangle and draw in a slanted line.

Your back yoke will look similar to this.

Cut the front yoke exactly the same except measure 2" to 2 1/2" at the center. The sides will be sloped exactly the same as the back. Cut the yoke in half. Be sure to add seam allowances to your pieces. Since I was using a chiffon, my seams were 1/4" wide. 

As you can see in the picture below, my ties are exactly the same width as my yoke.

My finished ties are 2 1/2" wide. They were cut 5 1/2" wide, folded in half and sewn with a 1/4" seam allowance.

Cut the yoke so that it will be the same width as your ties.

Cut the back as well.

Determine the length that you would like your top to be and double this measurement. The width of your rectangles will be 2 times the yoke measurement. You can see in the picture below that the rectangle is gathered into the yoke. We want the gathers to be soft, so 2 times the measurement from the center to the edge is plenty.

Serge the edges of your front and back rectangles.

Gather the two ends and attach to the yokes. For the back find the center of your back yoke and attach one end of your rectangle, fold the other end over and attach it to the other side.

The top is a fun little floaty top that will look great over jeans or leggings. Super easy to wear.

I may cut my ties down a bit. I think I'll wear it tomorrow and then decide.

A little hint, I initially cut my rectangles longer than I wanted them to be. I gathered the one side and sewed it to the yoke and then I roughly pinned the other side of the rectangle to the opposite yoke to see how I liked the length. As I said, it was longer than I wanted it to be so at that point it was quite easy to just cut the one side off and then gather that end and sew it in place. You will want to cut 2 back yokes and 2 of each side of your front yokes so that you can line the yoke. When sewing the yokes together, sew the shoulder seams first. Then sew the necklines together and the arm openings together. Turn the yoke and press your seams. Sew the ties to the front of the yoke and stitch the fronts together. Sew the long rectangles to the bottom of the yoke. Hand stitch the back side of your yoke closed.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer.

Rhonda
*An update to the post
When I posted the top yesterday, I left out that there is a side seam.

Once you have the rectangles sewn to the yokes, try the piece on and determine where you would like the side seams to begin and end. If you'll notice in the picture below, the front and back yokes line up. Once you take the top off, you may have to do a little adjusting in order to have your yokes line up. Sew down as far as you would like, but not so far that you begin to pull the draped bottom too much to the side.