Sign In
The West Sewalong is a step-by-step video series designed to guide you through sewing the West, from choosing your size to finishing the final details.
In this sewalong, we walk you through each stage of the process in short, focused lessons. You can move through the videos at your own pace, pause as needed, or skip ahead if you’re already comfortable with certain steps.
West is a button-up that effortlessly blends comfort with chic detailing. Its relaxed, oversized fit is perfect for easy layering and a laid-back look.
The back yoke adds structure, and delicate gathers at the front shoulder and center back below the yoke seam bring a touch of softness and movement. Practical and stylish, the West Shirt features cut-on sleeves, a notched collar, and two front patch pockets for a touch of utility and a modern fit.
To follow along, you’ll need the West Pattern. Seamwork members can download it as part of their membership, and non-members can purchase it individually in the shop.
Getting Started
Fabric recommendations: Look for light to medium-weight woven fabrics such as chambray, cotton lawn, shirtings, batiste, Swiss dot, linen, cotton voile, cotton gauze, rayon challis, rayon crepe, and silk.
Fabric qualities to look for: The West pattern is designed to be oversized, and it has cut-on sleeves. This means you’ll want a fabric with at least some drape so that the fabric hangs on your body and doesn’t stick out and look stiff.
Seamwork members, take advantage of your member deals this month! You can save up to 20% off your order here.
Prepare to Sew
This lesson covers all the basic things you need to know to get started with this sewalong. If you’re a beginner, this will be really helpful to watch!
If you feel like you already know how to get your pattern and fabric ready for sewing, go ahead and skip to the next lesson and you'll learn to do some helpful fitting adjustments.
You're going to learn how to:
- Select a pattern and reference its skill level
- Select a size
- Prepare patterns and fabric
- Cut and mark fabric
Fitting Adjustments
We created a free downloadable PDF called the Four Height Zones to help you gather the information you need to make adjustments to your pattern where you need it. We recommend printing it out and writing your height measurements on it to keep in your sewing journal.
Compare these measurements to the corresponding landmarks on your pattern pieces, and you'll know how much you need to shorten or lengthen that part of the pattern.
And here are some additional fitting resources if you need them:
- Follow this tutorial to lengthen and shorten a sewing pattern
- If you need to adjust the armhole depth, use this tutorial.
- If you want to blend between sizes, use this video tutorial.
- To adjust the shoulder slope, follow this tutorial.
-
Here are fitting tutorials for the shoulders and sleeves. - Here are tutorials for wide or narrow shoulder adjustments
- Here are tutorials for small bust adjustments and full bust adjustments.
If you prefer videos, there are bust adjustment videos in the Hansie sewalong here
Sewing Instructions
The PDF instructions will be your main guide as you work through this pattern, but we've created this video to walk you through the trickiest steps in detail. If you need help on a step not shown in this video, check out the Community Group Sew, where other Seamworkers and staff are ready to help out!
The trickiest steps for this pattern are:
- Attach collar (01:50)
- Attach front facing (07:23)
And here are some additional sewing resources if you need them:
- Follow this sewalong to sew a dart.
- Follow this sewalong to sew a patch pocket.
- Check out this tutorial to sew gathers.
- Watch this video for the burrito method.
- Watch this video for 5 buttonhole tricks.
