Front Knot Dress Pattern? The 224 Detailed Answer

Ever wanted to change the silhouette of an existing pattern? Today I’m going to show you a super simple pattern making technique that will show you how to change the shape of a garment. Hello, I’m Haley and I’m the designer here at Seamwork. You can find us at Seamwork.com. We’re a community of seamstresses passionate about designing and sewing our own closets, so join us at Seamwork.com

I’m seriously obsessed with pattern hacking! Rarely do I create a pattern without altering the design in some way, and one technique everyone should have in their pattern hack box of tricks is slitting and spreading. Slicing and spreading is a cornerstone of pattern making, and learning this technique will open up a whole new set of pattern hacking tricks. Today I’m going to make a basic trapeze top, but we’re going to learn all the basics, like how you can take this technique and apply it in a variety of ways.

So what is slash and spread? Slitting and spreading is a pattern making technique used to add volume to a garment. You can use it to add pleats and gathers. or even sweep. With this technique, you strategically cut your paper pattern to create more volume, allowing you to change the shape of a sleeve, bodice, or even a dress. I’m going to show you how to use the slash and spread technique to add oomph to a garment. Sweep is just a fancy word for the circumference of a hem. We’re going to be using the Elli-Henley to create a trapeze style top, but before we get started I want to give you a little preview of the hack and give you some customization ideas. This is what the Le Henley looks like right out of the envelope. You can see it’s a lovely fitted Henley t-shirt with a button placket center front and fitted long sleeves. And this is what the original sample looks like. You can see how appropriate this pattern really is here. And when we’re done with our hack today, we’ll end up with something that looks a bit like this. You can already see the shape of this pattern changing drastically.

I want to show you a few examples of how to apply this technique to different patterns. In this example here I used the same bodice but started the volume at the waist instead of the bust line to create a more fitted silhouette. You can also use the same technique for pattern pieces like sleeves. I have two examples here. In this first sleeve I’ve added volume, starting at the elbow and continuing down to the sleeve hem to create a bell shaped sleeve. And in the second example, I created a flutter sleeve. To do this I simply slashed and parted to the cap of the sleeve to create this silhouette. These are just a few examples of how you can use the slash and spread method, but you can already see how versatile it is.

While pattern hoes can break the rules, some patterns just work better than others. If you’re new to pattern hacking, you might want to stick with knitted garments just because they tend to be a bit more forgiving. But if you’re more of a woven type you can do that too, you just want to stick to things that are simpler in design with less pattern pieces and less shaping. I’ll include some links to our favorite hackable patterns below, so be sure to check them out.

Once you’ve chosen your pattern, you’re good to go. We’ll start by tracing our pattern onto a fresh sheet of paper. This is because we want to preserve the integrity of the original pattern just in case we decide to sew the original again in the future. When tracing, make sure you transfer any important markings like nicks, labels, and grain lines. Next we will determine where the volume should start to increase. This is essentially the point at which your garment will begin to expand. For the purposes of this tutorial, we’ll call this the baseline. And since I’m making a trapeze style top, I want the volume to increase at my bust line. So I take a clear ruler and a pencil and draw a line perpendicular to the center front along the bust line. On the Elli, this will be approximately – about an inch – below your button placket. Clear rulers are a really important editing tool. In pattern making, we use them to mark parallel and perpendicular lines and add things like seam and hem allowances. They come in many different materials and dimensions, but what I really like is a 2″ x 18″ clear ruler. I just find it more useful and it’s really great for navigating turns and measuring things like that. Once we’ve established our baseline, we can start marking our slashes. You take your clear ruler and start marking a series of parallel lines, parallel to center front, just below the baseline you just marked. We’ll start by cutting along our baseline. We take paper scissors and cut along the baseline, starting from the center front, and then moving towards the side seam. Finish just before the side seam, leaving a small paper hinge.

Once we’ve cut that, we can cut our slashes. For the slashes, we cut from the hem up to the baseline, again leaving a small paper hinge. Once you are done cutting you can really see your future pattern taking place. While the slashes allow you to open up the pattern and create volume, the baseline controls exactly where that volume begins. Now that our pattern is fully cut up, we can start finishing. We’re going to start first by gluing things on. So I placed a piece of pattern paper under my pattern and started attaching the upper part of the bodice – the unslit part – to this piece of paper. I’m just going to use some tape to do that.

Once that’s glued in place I can start playing around with the cut up portion of my pattern to play with the volume and create the shape I want to make. I like to use sample weights here. I just bought some oversized washers from the hardware store and I use these to help me hold everything in place and visualize the pattern before I glue anything on and finish. Here you can really have fun and imagine what your finished garment will look like. If you’re trying to create a more subtle shape, you should open up just a bit between your slashes, but if you want something more dramatic, you can definitely create a fair amount of volume with this technique. I add between 1 and 2 inches between each slash line to create this swinging trapezoid shape.

Once I’m happy with the shape I can start gluing everything in place. Once you’ve glued everything in place you can start to finish your shape. I’m going to use my clear ruler again and redraw the center front – simply following the original center front line of the top bodice. Once I have that, I’m going to use a curved ruler to redraw my hemline and also reshape my side seam just a bit. If you’ve created a more dramatic sweep, you may have a side seam that’s a little wobbly and you just want to soften that curve a little. When redrawing your hem you should follow the same line from your original pattern piece. It will be pretty obvious, and the clear ruler will help a lot, you just want to smooth it out a bit.

Once you are done redrawing these lines you can cut out your finished pattern hack and then apply the same changes to the back of your garment as well. After cutting and sewing, this is the garment I ended up with. I love that with just a bit of pattern paper or tape and a pair of scissors I can create something I really love. If you enjoy this pattern hack, be sure to check out a feature we offer each month in Seamwork called Pattern Hackers. We’re sharing three hacks for this month’s featured pattern. Subscribe to our channel for more tutorials, techniques and tips and follow us on Instagram to keep up to date with all things seamwork. Have pattern hack requests? Comment below and tell me what you’d like to see. Thanks for participating and happy hacking!