Tilly and the Buttons: Fitting the Samara Top Sewing Pattern

Making the Samara top sewing pattern and need a helping hand choosing your size and fitting? Then you're in the right place 😊

Samara is available in printed and layered PDF formats, in sizes UK 6-34 / US 2-30 / EUR 34-62 / AUS 6-34.

We designed the Samara top to be suitable for beginners, which means it's not only simple to sew, but it's also relatively easy to fit too - yay! Here we'll go through some of the most common fitting adjustments you might want to make to your Samara, but it's most likely you'll only need to make one or two tweaks, if any.

In this post, we're going to cover:

How the Samara pattern is designed to fit
Making a toile
Choosing your size
Lengthening or shortening pattern pieces
Combining pattern sizes at the bust/waist/hip
Making adjustments for a larger bust
Altering the neckline

How is Samara intended to fit? Relaxed oversized shape

How is the Samara top pattern intended to fit?

Samara has an intentionally oversized fit without darts, which means the top has a relaxed, modern style. It features dropped shoulder seams and deep sleeves, as well as two hem lengths to choose from.

This style of top isn't designed to fit closely around your sides and underarms, so don't get lured into over-fitting it. Some soft folds in the fabric are to be expected, and they'll disappear and reappear depending on how your arms are positioned.

Your fabric choice can affect the look and feel of your Samara top too. If you're using a more crisp, structured fabric, like linen or cotton, then any folds in the fabric will be more noticeable than if you made the top in something more fluid and drapey, like a viscose.

What's a toile and do I need to make one?

A toile - or a "muslin" - is an initial mock up of your garment made in cheaper fabric so you can test the fit and decide if you want to make any adjustments before you cut into the good stuff. If you decide to make a toile, you should use fabric that is similar in weight and drape to the fabric you want to use for your final project, as it will affect how it hangs.

If you can't summon the patience to make a separate toile, you may want to make a "wearable toile", which is a full version of the garment in fabric that you don't mind ditching if it doesn't fit straight out of the packet.

If you want to delve deeper into the subject, check out Tilly's blog post which goes through everything you need to know about toiles.

However, making a toile isn't necessarily a requirement for Samara. It's designed to be easy-fitting, with lots of ease (AKA excess fabric), so there's a lot more leeway on this pattern compared to a more fitted garment.

Body form with high bust, full bust, waist and hip areas highlighted

How do I choose my sewing pattern size?

Using a flexible tape measure, find the circumference of your:

bust - take the measurement at the fullest point, usually around your nipples
waist - where you bend at the side
hips - the fullest part - it helps to turn to the side and look in a mirror to see where this is

Check the tape measure is sitting level with the floor - it can help to turn to the side and look in a mirror to check.

Samara top body measurements and finished measurements chart

Circle your measurements on the ‘Body Measurements’ chart in the pattern instructions. If a measurement falls between two sizes (for example, if your full bust is 37in rather than 36in or 38in), it’s usually better to choose the larger size as you can take a garment in more easily than you can let it out. However, for the Samara top pattern, you can choose the smaller size if you want to, because it's designed to be roomy, or, if we're getting technical, it has a lot of design ease.

If your body measurements all fall into one size row on the chart, then that’s easy-peasy – you’re going to cut out that size. If your bust, waist and hips fall into different sizes, don’t worry, that’s absolutely normal and we'll get onto how to combine pattern sizes, but if you want to lengthen or shorten the pattern bodice and/or sleeve, it's best to do this adjustment first, before you tackle anything else.

The body measurement chart also lists ‘high bust’, which you’ll only need to take if you think you need to make a full bust adjustment - more on that in the section below on full bust adjustments.

How do I lengthen or shorten the pattern?

Our patterns are drafted for a height of 5'5" (165cm), so if you're a little (or a lot) taller or shorter than this, have a particularly long or short torso or arms, or you want to change the length of the bodice or sleeves to suit your own personal style it's easy to adjust the pattern pieces.

We have a blog post dedicated to explaining how to lengthen or shorten pattern pieces, which shows you step-by-step how to make this adjustment.

If you're lengthening or shortening the Samara bodice pattern pieces, remember to adjust both the front and back bodices by the same amount so that the side seams still match up.

We have included the following sets of lengthen or shorten lines on the Samara pattern pieces:

Diagram showing how to lengthen or shorten the Samara top bodice pattern piece by Tilly and the Buttons

1) Bodice

If you often find that tops are a bit too short or long for you in the bodice, you can lengthen or shorten the front and back bodice pattern pieces using the lengthen or shorten lines. We've included the nape to hem measurements for both the hip-length and cropped versions of Samara in the finished garment measurements section of the booklet, so you can check if this length is right for you.

The lengthen or shorten lines on the Samara bodices are between the waist notch and the cropped length hemline. You can adjust your pattern here if you feel like you need a bit more length, or conversely a bit less, in the torso.

Diagram showing how to lengthen or shorten the Samara top sleeve pattern pieces by Tilly and the Buttons

2) Sleeve

Whether you're making the straight sleeves or the elasticated sleeves, the process for altering the length is exactly the same.

The bracelet-length straight sleeve is designed to sit above the wrist, and the short straight sleeve at the crease of the elbow. The full-length elasticated sleeve is designed to sit on the wrist, and the elbow-length elasticated sleeve just below the elbow. If you know you have particularly long or short arms you can adjust the sleeves accordingly.

The short straight sleeve doesn't have any lengthen or shorten lines, but it's still very simple to change the length. If you want to shorten the sleeve, draw a line parallel to the sleeve hem, with the distance between the line you've drawn and the sleeve hem equal to the amount you want to reduce the pattern piece by and cut away the excess. If you want to lengthen the short straight sleeve, stick the bottom of the sleeve to a piece of paper, and draw a line parallel to the sleeve hem, with the distance between the line you've drawn and the sleeve hem equal to the amount you want to lengthen it by. Continue the underarm seam on both sides until it reaches the new sleeve hem.

Diagram showing how to combine sizes for the Samara top sewing pattern by Tilly and the Buttons

How do I combine pattern sizes?

If your bust, waist and hip measurements fall in different sizes on the body measurements chart, you can grade between these areas to get a bespoke fit for your exact body measurements. Check out our blog post which explains how to combine sizes.

If you’re making the hip-length version of Samara, to keep the side seams nice and smooth, don't worry about grading to your waist size, as that part is loose-fitting anyway. Simply choose your full bust size for the top section of the pattern and grade to your hip size along the bodice side seams. However, if your waist is five or more sizes bigger or smaller than your bust or hips, I’d recommend grading out or in to your waist size to make sure it fits.

Make sure you cut the sleeve, front facing and back facing pieces in the same size as the top section of the bodice, so that all the pieces still fit together nicely.

How do I do a full bust adjustment on a bodice without darts?

Sizes 1-6 in our patterns (or UK 6-16 / US 2-12) are drafted for a 5cm (2in) difference between the high bust and full bust, while sizes 7-15 (or UK 18-34 / US 14-30) are drafted for a 10cm (4in) difference between the high bust and full bust.

If the difference between your high bust and full bust is significantly more than this for the size you’re making, or if you know you usually need to make a full bust adjustment, then you can select your size based on your high bust measurement – because if you picked your size based on your full bust measurement instead, the shoulders and upper chest could end up too big for your frame.

With Samara, as there’s so much ease in the pattern (more than 9in at the bust), in most cases you won’t need to do a full bust adjustment when picking a size based on your high bust measurement, unless your full bust is 4 or more pattern sizes bigger than your high bust - in which case, check out our blog post on how to do a full bust adjustment on a dartless bodice.

How do I alter the V neckline?

If you'd like to adjust the depth of Samara's V neckline, it's easy peasy to redraft it to suit your personal taste.

Diagram showing how to adjust the neckline on the Samara top pattern

First, decide how much you want to raise or lower the neckline. Starting at the centre front fold line, measure down from the neckline by this amount and mark here if you want to lower it, or stick some paper underneath, measure up by this amount and extend the fold line to raise it.

If you want to bring the top of the neckline in at the shoulders, you can extend the shoulder seam. Make the same adjustment on the back bodice so the shoulder seams match up, squaring off the corners into a right angle so the seams match up.

Connect up the fold line and shoulder seam with a gentle curve. You can use a curved ruler for this, or sketch it in freehand following a similar shape to the existing neckline. Don't forget to transfer the notches to your new neckline.

You'll also need to make the same alterations to the neckline facing(s). (If you raised the bodice neckline, remember to stick some extra paper underneath the facing.) Lay the facing(s) over the bodice(s), aligning it with the original bodice pattern lines. Trace the new neckline and transfer the notches from the bodice onto the facing.

And now all that's left to do is to put the pivot point back in the correct place on the front facing. Measure up or down from the pivot point by the same amount that you raised or lowered the neckline, then mark the new pivot point along the centre front fold line.

I hope this post has given you a few useful tips for fitting your Samara top. Remember, don't try to overfit this style of top and embrace Samara's modern, relaxed vibe.

Please share with us your finished makes and progress shots on Instagram, tagging @TillyButtons with the hashtag #SewingSamara. We're so excited to see what you make!