Don’t you just hate wasting fabric or having so many scraps that eventually you just throw away to make space for new ones? Fear not, Mood has a solution to your problem with the new Cadia Shirt. It’s a zero-waste or minimal-waste style that can be jazzed up in multiple ways by using fun prints and accessories! The only ‘waste’ comes in the form of a small oval that gets cut out for the neck hole, which can easily be turned into seam binding, a decorative applique, or saved for eco-friendly pillow stuffing!
Purchase Materials Used Below:
- 1.5-2 yards New Tobbaco Crinkled Cotton Voile, Black Watch Cotton Gauze, or Oscar De La Renta Ivory/Thyme/Black Linen-Silk Woven
- MDF270 – The Cadia Shirt Sewing Pattern (free download below!)
Alternative Recommended Fabrics:
A few notes before you get cutting and sewing:
- Depending on the size you’re making, you may be able to cut your garment along the weft or warp to get slightly different looks. For example, the pattern is drafted for a 44″ fabric, but we cut our brown sample from a 47″ option. Rather than cut it down to 60″ and lose all that waste, we simply made our tunic slightly longer. When you lengthen the tunic, it also lengthens your sleeve. This means more sleeve is gathered into the ‘armhole’ to create more volume!
- You can also add a belt or darts to create a more flattering shape.
- Take the fabric that was left from the neck hole and create a flower or some type of applique to avoid all waste!
- If you want to bind the neck hole, you can cut some fabric off the bottom of the tunic to create bias tape.
Step 1
Print out or draw the diagram directly onto your fabric with a washable marking tool.
Step 2
Mark your neck hole, armhole, and the slit on both sides.
Step 3
Fold neckline using a rolled hem. As an alternative method, you can serge or bias bind using scraps of fabric.
Step 4
Fold sleeves in half along the length and pin in place so it doesn’t move. Sew a double gathering stitch along the long, raw edge.
Step 5
Gather sleeves to fit between the ‘armhole’ notches in the side seams, pin, and sew face to face. Finish the edge using a serger, zig-zag stitch, or scrap binding.
Note: Make sure the gathers are evenly distributed and use many pins to keep them in place.
Step 7
Fold your shirt in half at the ‘shoulder seams’ face to face, and stitch from the sleeve to the top of the slit. Finish the edge using a serger, zig-zag stitch, or scrap binding.
Step 8
Roll hem the edges of the slit, pin, and stitch.
Step 9
Finish off the bottom with a rolled hem to the length of your choice!
