Camisole: Part 1 Drafting

I wanted to provide a full tutorial about drafting your own camisole and how to sew it, particularly how to get really great looking bias bindings and straps. I recently purchased the newly released MADEIT Patterns Go Shorties and Camisole but didn’t love the pattern or the methods, but that’s not why I buy patterns. I know I’m usually going to draft my own pattern and make up my own methods. I bought the pattern because it’s helpful to have a reference for drafting, and their pattern had this cool color blocking option. This post is how I created my own pattern, and my next post will be about how to construct the camisole. The take-home point about this post is that PATTERN EASE MATTERS.

Self-drafting a camisole pattern

I started with my version of Hey June Handmade’s crew neck t-shirt (see here). This entire tutorial assumes you have a relaxed fit, basic t-shirt pattern to start from. My Union St. Tee has approximately 3 ½ inches of positive ease at the chest and 5 ½ inches of positive ease at the hips. You also want to make sure your t-shirt pattern fits well. For example, if the armscye on your t-shirt pattern isn’t scooped out enough or is scooped out too much, then the camisole armscye will also look wrong. If anyone does try this, remember your results may vary.

Fabric

Before explaining how I drafted my pattern pieces, I need to also discuss fabric. The entire point of this post is about style ease and fabric choice is going to have a big impact on ease. I’m pretty particular about my knit fabric and right now this is my list of sources: Art Gallery knits, Pico Textiles cotton spandex jersey, Fabric Store merino jersey, Hemp stretch jersey, and maybe Swafing solid jersey. The key thing about all these fabrics is that they are between 220-240gsm, and they all have a 50% 4-way stretch. Blackbird Fabrics has a medium weight rib knit that is 332gsm with a 70% 4-way stretch. My pattern pieces would have to be altered to accommodate a fabric with more than 50% stretch. Conversely, if you plan to use fabric with less than 50% 4-way stretch, this pattern will be way too tight. Fabric choice and fit preference will greatly impact how you draft your pattern.

Front

Here is how everything lines up; center front stays in the same location for both the t-shirt and camisole, and the location of the underarm remains on the same horizontal plane.