Sewing pattern tutorial: The Vipère shirt hack

Each issue of our magazine L'Oeil Fauve is an opportunity to present a new sewing hack to you. This season, I chose to turn the Vipère jumpsuit and dress pattern into a chic blouse.

To help you with this new version we offer you a PDF format extension of the sewing pattern which includes a new front bust piece and a new back piece. The files are free to download in A4, A3, A0 and US letter format. The extension is available here.

The rest of the pattern pieces needed to make the Vipère shirt are in your sewing pattern (available here).

I sewed a refined version of the Vipère shirt, leaving out the chest pocket and the shoulder tabs. I find that the Lily fabric provides enough “information” not to overload the design. But you can of course decide to include these options for your shirt, the explanations are the same as the original pattern.  

Cutting plan and pattern pieces

Necessary supplies

You can use many fabrics to sew your Vipère shirt: twill, crepe, cotton or viscose poplin, even a cotton voile for a summer version, a light jacquard like the Lily viscose jacquard used in our step-by-step video, thin denim, lace and guipure like our lace fabrics, light to medium weight fabrics between 60 and 200 g/m2.

The fabric consumption for this version for a width of 140 cm will be:

• 34-40: 150 cm
• 42-48: 160 cm
• 50-52: 180 cm

• 10 buttons between 10 and 12 mm for the bust and cuffs, and 2 more buttons if you also sew the shoulder tabs
• 70 cm of Vlieseline G710 iron-on adhesive

The patterns technical points

This new version significantly reduces the level of difficulty of the pattern: there is no longer any assembly of the trousers or the skirt, the button placket will not have to be assembled inset with the bottom of the garment, and there are fewer parts therefore less risk of error during cutting and assembly.

We classify this pattern as an intermediate sewing level.

The steps for sewing the Vipère shirt that we show you in our step-by-step video cover the following technical points:

• Sewing pleats
• Sewing darts
• Carry out a yoke assembly of the back extension
• Sewing a button placket
• Mounting a cuff with a tear-resistant tab finish
• Assembly of sleeves

For details on assembling the chest pocket or shoulder tabs, go to the Vipère jumpsuit/dress pattern video available here.

Happy sewing!