Tunic top

1. Create the square neckline template. To visualise the shape of the neckline, stand in front of a mirror and place a sheet of A4 horizontally on to your chest, this will help you to see the position and placement of the neck. Stick paper either side of the horizontal sheet to create the side sections of the neck. Snip the paper so that your neck fits comfortably through the gap and that the side pieces meet the tip of your shoulders.

2. Check the fit. Fold the paper so that it sits back over your shoulders allowing your hands to be free to mark out the desired neckline, armholes and shoulders. Pin the templates over your clothes and check from all angles to ensure that you are happy with the fit. Remove the template and neaten any lines.

3. Complete the neckline template. Taper the shoulder seam lines gently to match the shoulder slopes – you don’t want it to be a 90o angle or it will not sit comfortably and will slip about. To ensure pattern symmetry, fold the paper in half when you are cutting the armholes and tapering the shoulders. Pin it onto your clothes to check, marking the paper and trimming your pattern. Imagine there is a line running down your underarm to your hips. This is the point your side seams end. Fold the paper accordingly and trim. Keep having a look at how the yoke sits on your body when it’s pinned in place.

4. Adjust the front yoke, and make shaping adjustments. The bust line shape slopes down either side towards the underarms and it needs to be levelled on the body. Mark the pattern piece with ‘Yoke Front, Cut two’. This section is self lined, so one will be the outer section and the other will become the lining.

5. Make the second pattern piece. Begin to plot out the back yoke. Duplicate the Yoke Front pattern piece onto a new sheet of paper by drawing around it, but this time, link the two top shoulder corner points with a gentle arc to follow the contour of the back nec