Nico Pattern hack made with FS Kenya Midweight Linen

I’m back today with a fun, juicy hack for you. I recently made a Nico bias cut dress and admitted to you… I’m not good with making basics. I used the Nico dress pattern to make the camisole and couldn’t resist adding a little of my own flare with a layered tulip-style back hack. This was a really easy hack that I would recommend to anyone!

I chose Kenya red midweight linen and cut my suggested size 4.  I wanted to elevate this style while still keeping the basic shape and made the following changes:

Length: Cropped the camisole length by 3 more inches. This is just my personal preference.

Nico Pattern hack made with FS Kenya Midweight Linen

Tulip Design: Instead of using the traditional back pattern piece, I traced it onto a new piece of paper, drew a new hem line that intersected about halfway through the armhole (photographed), and cut two of those (mirrored if using a directional fabric, or the same direction in linen).

Bias binding the tulip layers: Before attaching the front of the camisole to the back, I bias bound the inner side overlapping edges of both tulip back pieces individually. I did the same with the back half of the neckline for each back piece.

Nico Pattern hack made with FS Kenya Midweight Linen

Attaching front to back: Then, I overlapped the two back pieces in the final position and treated them as if they were attached as one back piece. I attached this like normal to the front at sewed the shoulders, then the sides.

Finishing: Lastly, I bias bound the armholes per the instructions and hemmed the whole thing like normal!

Nico Pattern hack made with FS Kenya Midweight Linen

The overlapping shape could be cut higher or lower to show some more skin or less. Both versions that I made of this Nico pattern came together very quickly and each could most definitely be sewn in an afternoon.

Happy sewing!