Caramiya Tate Crop Top and Dress

This was a very well-timed project. I was already planning to make this pattern and was in the middle of testing when all hell broke loose. Another repercussion of my health scare this last month is that I haven’t been able to wear a bra or anything restrictive around my chest. I’m unsure when or if I’ll feel comfortable in my old everyday bras and sports bras. My old sports bras are based on Megan Nielsen’s Cottesloe swimsuit pattern. Oddly, I never wrote a blog post about it. They were getting tight before my health issues, and now they’re unwearable.

When I saw the online video showing how the Tate crop top is sewn, I immediately knew I wanted to try the pattern. The construction is new to what I’ve seen before. I love the bit about finishing the bottom seam before the second side seam and then doing this mind-meld method to complete the side seam so you only have a small hole to finish by hand. It’s a lovely method and a quick sew on your serger.

Analyzing Style and Fit

The Tate pattern style is a close-fitting garment made with stretch knit fabric. The fabric must have a 4-way stretch, stretching equally horizontally and vertically. All three versions have a square neck for both the front and back.

The Tate pattern consists of a crop top, tank top, and dress, each designed for different body types and preferences. For the crop top, there are two options: one for cup sizes A/B and another for cup sizes C/D. Similarly, the tank top and dress patterns come in straight and curvy blocks.

The crop top does not have elastic or a stabilizer for the bottom hem, but it is easily added, as you’ll find out below.

Sizing and Versions

Size Charts

The pattern comes in two bust options: A/B cup and C/D cup. However, no instructions exist to determine what bust cup size you fall under. There are two conflicting methods for determining bra cup size. Ready-to-wear (RTW) bras use under-bust and full-bust measurements for cup sizing, while garment sewing often relies on high-bust and full-bust circumferences. I also wish the pattern had the final garment measurements. It annoys me when they don’t. My measurements—42-inch high-bust, 40-inch full-bust, and 36-inch under-bust—underscore this issue: according to RTW standards, I’m a D-cup, yet the garment sewing method leaves me uncertain due to my larger high-bust.

	00	0-2	4-6	8-10	2-14	16-18	20-22	24-26	28-30	32-34
Bust	30-31	32-33	34-35	36-37	38-40	41-43	44-46	48-50	52-54	56-58
Waist	23-24	25-26	27-28	29-30.5	32-34	36-38	40-42	44-46	48-50	52-54
Hip	33-34	35-36	37-38	39-40.5	42-44	46-48	50-52	54-56	58-60	62-64

	00	0-2	4-6	8-10	12-14	16-18	20-22	24-26	28-30	32-34
Bust	31-32	33-34	35-36	37-38.5	40-42	44-46	48-50	52-54	56-58	60-62
Waist	23-24	25-26	27-28	29-30.5	32-34	36-38	40-42	44-46	48-50	52-54
Hip	35-36	37-38	39-40.5	42-44	46-48	50-52	54-56	58-60	62-64	66-68

My Body Measurements

As stated above, my high bust measures 42 inches, my full bust measures 40 inches, my waist measures 34 inches, and my hips measure 46 inches with the measuring band. I ended up starting with size 16-18 from the A/B cup pattern (41-43 inch bust, 36-38 inch waist, 46-48 inch hip), but I’m going to explore my final pattern against the C/D cup pattern to see if that would have been a better place to start. Should I have started with a size 12-14 from the C/D cup pattern (40-42 inch bust, 32-34 inch waist, 46-48 inch hip)?

Materials and Alterations

I’m combining the fabric and alterations because the fabric will have a massive impact on your alterations. Here are some of the things I looked for when assessing the fit:

• The hem is balanced. That means the front, back, and sides are all on the same horizontal plane.
• The shoulder straps hang straight off my shoulders and aren’t placed too narrow or too wide for my frame.
• The side seam is straight down from my armpit.
• The armhole curves nicely around my arm and doesn’t restrict movement or is too loose.

Version 1

I started by testing this pattern using the spandex fabric I got from CV linens. This fabric is lightweight (200 gsm) and has more than 100% 4-way stretch. As stated above, I began with the size 16-18 A/B cup pattern.

The front shoulder is too long and loose. Overall, the front is too loose.

The hem is not balanced and tilts from front to back.

The back shoulders look good, and overall, the back was tight enough.

The unbalanced hem means I can’t raise my arms without falling out of the bottom of the crop top. The front hem is too high on my body, and the back hem is too low.

Version 2

I needed to make several adjustments based on the original fit:

• Shorten the front shoulder by 1-1/2 inches. The straps were too loose and easily fell off my shoulders.
• Lengthen/drop the center front 2 inches and shorten the center back 3/8 inches. I blended these two changes, which lengthened the side seam by 1 inch.
• Narrow the bottom hem by 3/4 inch for the front and back pieces.

Version 3

I tested version 2 of the pattern with the CV linens and thought the fit was all right. I made just a few additional changes:

• Narrow the front side seam by 1/4 inch.
• Raise the center back by 1/2 inch for a total of 7/8 inch. I probably could have raised the back a whole inch.

Version 4

I decided to make a wearable muslin. The fabric I chose from my stash was Meet Milk Derby Ribbed Jersey (230 gsm, 95% TENCEL, 5% spandex). It has a 110-120% 4-way stretch. However, I’m not a massive fan of this fabric because it tends to pill.

I added 1/4-inch swimsuit elastic to all the seams, something I did with the Cottesloe pattern. However, I hated how the top felt. The swimsuit elastic over-stabilized everything, and now the shoulder straps were too tight, the arm holes were digging in, and the whole thing didn’t feel great. This wearable muslin didn’t work.

Version 5

Next, I tried my standard T-shirt jersey fabric because it is closer to the recommended fabric, and I didn’t add the swimsuit elastic. The cotton spandex jersey I get from Pico Textiles is 95% cotton and 5% spandex (180 gsm) and has only 50% 4-way stretch.

These tops have remained as wearable muslins since they fit decently. They’ve been great for me this last month to wear to all my doctor visits since wearing my everyday bra isn’t possible.

Version 6

I thought I was done with the pattern and ready to make my activewear versions. The first fabric I tried from Blue Moon Fabrics was Energize nylon spandex (77% nylon, 23% spandex, 320 gsm). The fabric reminds me of the leggings and tops from Lululemon in 2010. However, the top was so incredibly tight that I had to start all over with this pattern and choose a different size.

Version 7 and 8

I went up to a size 20-22 in the A/B cup and copied some of the same changes from my previous version:

• Lengthen/drop the center front by 2 inches and shorten the center back by 1/2 inch.
• Narrow the bottom hem by 3/4 inch for the front and back pieces.
• I also added a few inches to both shoulder straps to dry-fit the strap length before making the final garment. My dry-fit test resulted in adding 1 inch to the back strap and removing 1/2 inch from the front strap.
• The other thing I fixed during my dry-fit was to scoop 1/2 inch from the front armhole.

Thankfully, I still had enough fabric left over to make another top.

I made a second activewear top from Blue Moon Fabrics using Performance nylon spandex (72% nylon, 28% spandex, 230 gsm). This fabric has a smooth and slippery feel. I wasn’t too pleased with either fabric from Blue Moon. The Energize fabric will be too hot in the summer, and the Performance fabric is too revealing. You can see underwear lines, my lovely cellulite on my legs, and my temperature!

Version 9 and 10

I ordered Sport Lycra fabric from Spoonflower because the Blue Moon fabric didn’t work. I love the Sport Lycra fabric from Spoonflower. It is 88% polyester and 12% lycra. It has a 4-way stretch, but other features that make it awesome are 50+ UPF, no pilling, colorfastness to perspiration, seawater and chlorine, and advanced wicking. Perfect fabric for hot, sunny hiking in the summer. I made the top based on my Version 8 alterations but immediately unpicked the whole thing because I still had some significant changes I needed to make.

The final changes I made are:

• I went back to my original strap lengths. The back matches the original pattern length, and the front is 1-1/2 inches shorter.
• Narrowed the top of the front side seam 1-3/8 inches.
• Raised the center front 1/2 inch, so instead of lengthening it 2 inches, it only needs to be lengthed 1-1/2 inches.
• I raised the center back another 1/4 inch for a total of 3/4 inches compared to the original pattern piece.
• Lowered the back armhole 1/4 inch to match the front side seam length.

Final Fit

To turn this pattern into a sports bra and fix the center front splaying issue, I added 1-1/2 inch wide elastic to the bottom. I insert the elastic right before the last step of closing the small hole along the side seam. My elastic measured 33 inches, and I overlap it by 1/2 inch. I pin the elastic to the bottom of the hem and, with my cover stitch machine, stitch through the fabric and top edge of the elastic to hold it in place. Finally, I closed up the side seam. I love the fit of my tops so much!

Trout Doodle by Double J Doodles

Rainbow Trout from Grown From Glass

Wonderland Flowers by Cecilia Mok

Pattern Comparison

Size 20-22 A/B cup

To refresh your memory, my body measurements are 42-inch high bust, 40-inch full bust, 33-inch under bust, 34 to 38-inch waist (depending on my cycle), and 46-inch full hips. The recommended body measurements for this size are 44-46 inch bust, 40-42 inch waist, and 50-52 inch hip.

Size 16-18 C/D cup

The recommended body measurements for this size are 44-46 inch bust, 36-38 inch waist, and 50-52 inch hip.

Conclusions

I don’t know that my work would have been any easier with a different starting size. It helped that I started big enough that my adjustments mainly involved removing fabric rather than trying to add fabric. I can see from my photos that I could probably raise the center back another 1/4 inch, but honestly, the fit is perfect for me!

In general, I struggled to find the right amount of tightness, but not too much, with this pattern. My body is super sensitive right now, making the project extra tricky. But I cried when I reached my final fit because the top felt so good. This was a big win for me this month since I needed something to wear but didn’t have a lot of energy or ability to focus to make the project go quickly.