As I was browsing earlier today I came upon a picture of this vintage McCalls pattern. I thought this was a perfect challenge for today – can I modify my pattern from the From sloper to sleeveless top project to make a similar pajama top? Here is what I did…

This pattern will be very similar to my A-line sleeveless top pattern except for three things: it will not have the front underarm dart, it will have a front and back yoke and it will have more fullness. To add fullness in the back, I redrew that leftover shoulder dart (that was ‘blended’ into the design my adding ease). But first I drew the yokeline (position is arbitrary, but I chose it to be about 1/4 of the bodice original bodice length measured from the top – based on “Paternmaking..” by Joseph-Armstrong). I changed the position of the dart slightly, so that it ends at the yokeline – this fullness will be added only under the yoke. I believe this is not really “legal”, but since the dart is so small, I thought it might not hurt. So to add fullness, I will move the shoulder dart into the fullness.

Next, I cut out the dart and also slashed along the dashed line all the way to the tip of the dart (this dashed line is where fullness was added to the original pattern).

And now you move the right side of the pattern around the tip of the dart until the dart is closed. That will “open” up the pattern below the yokeline, adding fullness. At this point you can retrace your pattern on a different piece of paper, but I was lazy, so I just taped the dart together.

Finally I redrew the yokeline because in the previous step, part of it, right from the tip of the dart, moved up slightly. And cut at yokeline. I decided not to add any more fullness however, you could cut up the pattern more – one cut could be parallel to the side seam about 1/3 up the armhole and spread open too. Or you could make several cuts equally spread along the pattern… but I thought this was enough.

The front neckline was too deep for a yoke so I taped a piece of paper under my pattern to be able to redraw a less deep neckline. I chose the yokeline to be 5cm from the middle of the neckline, again arbitrary – I measured approximate position on the dressform…

I cut around the new neckline, cut out the dart (which will be moved to add fullness) and cut along the line from the tip of the dart (BP) straight down to the hemline.

And finally – I moved the lower left part of the pattern until the dart was completely closed and cut along the yokeline. Again, you could add more fullness by cutting another line parallel to the side seam about 1/3 up the armhole, but this was enough.

And this is what it looks like finished…

Fit is good. As I expected it is very similar to the original pattern. All the modifications only added fullness, but did not change the fit. This new pattern is not wider around the bust and the yoke sits perfectly…