Heyhey,

so here comes my new batwing/dolman sleeve idea! It would almost work as a dress. This one I only did with a serger, but I already made one just with sewing machine, for fabrics that does not fray much that works just fine, but for the bigger knit fabric I used, the serger was and is the better choice. I’ll post a few pictures to the other variation soon.

With the knit fabric I fell in love a while ago and had to buy one meter, that wasn’t enough for this top, you need at least 10 cm more then that, so this top got 5cm shorter then planned, but it fits great anyway :).  That happens if you work with fabric you already have. The crazy print I found a while ago as a cheaper rest and it looked so much fun. 🙂 Well I hope you like it, too. Let me know what you think and show me how yours turns out!

Recipe

Ingredients

1.20 m of elastic fabric for the bodice (but I think it should work with something un-elastic, too)

0.7 m of an fitting jersey

sewing thread

serger, paper, paper shears, tailor shears, set square and pen

Pattern

draw a square: 1/4 bust x top length (mine is 60 cm), thats your front/back

and another square: sleeve length(60 cm) x 20 cm or more depending on how wide you want your sleeve, thats the sleeve

place the 2 squares on another paper, front/back right at the edge, sleeve in a right angle to it

and repeat the same in a mirror image, so you get a T

draw a parallel line 20 cm before the end of the sleeve and on this line 5 cm away from each outline

go 20 cm from the right angle on each line and then connect those points and the the sleeve-points in a curve

now you need a hole for your head, go 2 cm down from the middle line to one side and 10 cm to the other side, which will be the front from now on and 15 cm away from the edge on the line and connect all those points with a curved line. Now you only need to add seam allowance all around (the edge stays at it is that is the later fabric fold)

for the forearm-sleeve you need to start with a middle line 30 cm long, or if you don’t like your sleeves as long as I do 20cm, then draw lines in a right angles at both ends, one with the length of your forearm circumference, draw it half on both sides of the middle line, the other with your wrist or wished length also half to each side, then connect those points

the wrist side will be cut in fold, so only add seam allowance to the other three sides and cut the part

and you need a square, hip-10cm (for the elasticity) +2cm seam allowance x 30cm +1cm seam allowance

Cutting

on this pic you can see I did not have enough fabric, anyway: fold your fabric selvage on selvage with right side in and pin the part right at the fold

and cut it

next fold the jersey, right side in, this time in a right angle to the selvages and pin the hip-part and sleeve-part on the fold, the sleeve part twice. 😉 and cut the parts.

Sewing

next fold the hip and sleeve-parts side-seam on side-seam with wrong side out.

and fold top on back of the bodice and pin the side-seams that are also the sleeve side-seams

and sew all seams with your serger (if you have fabric that does not fray or build runs you can also sew it with your normal sewing machine, with straight stitching, I will show you the one I did like that soon)

fold the hip-part and sleeve-parts with right side out

and pin to the other part, stretch the jersey a little because it is a little tighter then your bodice-part

sew it stretch the jersey to avoid folds

fold open, looks almost finished 😉

next cut an 8cm-wide strip with the length of your neck-hole minus 5cm and sew the short ends together

fold the neck-band in the middle with right side out and pin it stretched to the neck-hole

and sew it stretched

its so comfy to wear and I just love my to long sleeves!

 

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All the best

Your TailorFairy