Crop Style

This is a crop opening, which seems to be all the rage with Sears and Penneys. Basically, you have two shirt fronts. The side closest to your body (the underlay) has slits for you to reach your bra and feed your baby. The side that the world sees (the overlay) looks like a short t-shirt, usually with buttons at the sideseam. Personally, I detest the buttons and gave them up a couple of years ago, but we're all different, so whatever floats your boat is fine. Here are a couple of pictures:


You can see that the velvet overlay is much longer than the pink t-shirt. The velvet is also sewn together at the sideseams, while the pink shirt is still waiting for those dumb buttons a year after I started wearing it. And yes, the longer overlay is much more flattering than a horizontal line directly across the giant bustline. Live and learn. :)

Designing your crop overlay

Decide where you want your crop overlay. It needs to be somewhere between the bust point and the waistline. Using a yardstick or something to help you draw a straight line, draw a line across your pattern for your crop overlay. Remember that it's going to need a hem, so add an extra inch for the hem. I like my overlays to have the same hem allowance as the underlay, so check your pattern instructions if this matters to you.



Good job! Now to design the underlay.