Tag: Batwing

Froggy Batwing

Got my mom some frogs to brighten up her day.

I bought this froggy fabric somewhere, some time ago. I don’t really remember, but I always thought they were very cute and that my mom would also find them quite funny. They are colourful and different and would be perfect for a top. When I made the Cheshire Cats batwing top, it was basically meant as a wearable mock up for this fabric. I brought it to my mom and when she tried it on, it fit fine but could probably do with a tiny bit more width. So I printed out a new copy of the  Amy Bat Wing Top, now in a size M. There were two adjustments made, one to add a bottom band and one to add a neckline band.

Everything was sewn on the serger apart from a line of stitching around the neckline to keep it in place. This is definitely the benefit of adding bands instead of hemming tops. I really like the frogs and the colours and the shape of the top. My mom also seemed to like it and I still have enough leftover to make a shirt for myself. Now I just need to get around to actually doing it…

For Those Prickly Days

If you’re grumpy and you know it, wear this sweater.

In May 2020 with Covid still locking everything down, the local market stall that sells pre-cut lengths of fabric, decided to do some online auctions. That meant that they showed their fabrics in front of a camera and people could buy those from their website. So I took that opportunity to purchase some fabric. Now without being able to touch fabric, I’m apparently not very good at picking out things that I want to use. I think this is one of the first lengths that I’ve actually sewn up from that batch. Since I was in a fairly prickly mood at the time with corona and other stuff, this cactus fabric really spoke to me. However, when it arrived, it was not as thick as I expected it to be, so it took a while for me to decide on a project.

After the batwing top partial success, I wanted to try a batwing with sleeves that covered all of my arms. So I set out to find another pattern and settled on the one from Sew Different. When comparing the shapes, this Sew Different one was fair bit wider and with deeper ‘wings’ – it was also a size L so that wasn’t too surprising. I decided to adjust it a little so that it would 1. fit on my fabric and 2. wouldn’t be quite as wide. I basically scooped the wings up a little so that it was less exaggerated and made it narrower at the bottom. I could also get away with shortening the sleeves a little as I was doing bands anyway.

The fabric is not as thick and warm as I would normally like, but I thought that with the summer heating up, it would be good to have a thinner sweater. It went together smoothly and actually is quite nice to wear. I might end up with a few more items with similar shapes, either in fabric or in knit.

Cheshire Tops

Making two different cat face shirts.

While stalking the local market recently, I discovered a jersey with Cheshire Cat faces on it. It was love at first sight and the length went home with me. It then languished in the hoard for a fair few weeks before I got up the energy to make a thing. One of my tried and true t-shirt drafts got picked first because I just wanted to have a cat eye shirt in rotation. My serger was being good and actually worked for the entirety of this project, so that made it a very quick sew. Not much more to say, I’ve got a fair few of these types of shirt in the cupboard and they all get a lot of wear.

After finishing that first top however, I had so much fabric left over that I started considering what to do with it. My penchant of keeping random short bits of fabric in the hoard means that I never seem to fully use up a fabric and I wanted to try and change that. I’d been thinking about bat wing tops for a while at that point as I’m planning on making one for my mother (have not completed that yet). So I looked for a pattern and settled on the Amy Bat Wing Top. Printed out the size small and tried to fit it on the fabric. That didn’t go exactly to plan so I cut the back in a top and bottom and reduced the length of the sleeves a little. Instead of hemming, I added a band along the bottom, similar to the arm bands. The neckline is also banded instead of made with facings.

When I first put it on, I couldn’t figure out if I liked it or not. The sleeves are approximately elbow length, which is not something I generally enjoy. The shape is also completely different to anything I normally wear. However, after living in it for a few days I decided that it was quite nice. I’m just not entirely sure if this will see much wear. There is a lot of fabric but short-ish sleeves so it won’t fit under a sweater but will it suit hot(ter) weather or not? Future will tell if it will escape the cupboard regularly.