We talk a lot about fitting and pattern adjustments on this blog. Our goal is to help you create clothes that fits you the way you want, and learning to alter patterns for your shape is a key part of that. And I do believe that anyone can learn to fit a pattern, and that pattern adjustments really don’t take that much time.
But often, we get comments saying that these alterations seem daunting or time-consuming. And so, I think it’s worth devoting some blog space to the argument that you may not always need to dive down into nitty-gritty pattern adjustments in order to create a beautiful garment that you love and will love to wear.
In fact, one of my most beloved handmade pieces is one of the first ones I ever sewed myself, and I didn’t make any changes to it whatsoever. It’s the Lisette Traveler, which has long since been discontinued, and I sewed this one in early 2014. Here I am wearing it back then.
Strictly speaking, the fit isn’t quite right. The bust dart is too high and the shoulders are too wide. But I don’t think either of these issues are really noticeable to anyone but me. This tunic is still one of my favorite pieces, and when it fits, I wear it often. Because I didn’t overfit it, it fits me well across a fluctuating weight range. Below, you can see me wearing it more recently. In these photos I’m a size or two larger than I was when I first made it.
As I mentioned, this pattern is out of print. But you can get a similar look by lengthening the Classic Shirt pattern or the Recital Shirt pattern. The Recital is princess-seamed and comes with a band collar similar to this one. The Classic Shirt has bust darts (and cup sizes!) and the collars are interchangeable between the two patterns.