Tutorial

Cut your sleeve out, then cut it down the middle. You'll be sewing it back together at some point. Get rid of that little scrappy square-ish upper right section, you won't be needing it. I'm going to be calling the remaining two pieces the front sleeve and the back sleeve! Just remember that you have not added any seam allowance to that centre seam and at the top of the front piece (you can add it now but i just add it when i'm cutting out the fabric). The seam allowance on the rest of the pieces is fine because it's included in the original pattern.


Cut out a pair of each. These fabrics came from the bowels of my scrap bins so please excuse their scrunchiness! don't forget to ADD YOUR SEAM ALLOWANCE - to the straight centre seam (of each piece) and to the top of the front sleeve. I added one cm.


Stitch the sleeve backs to the back shirt like you normally would!


Fold over the top of the front sleeves and stitch along that (do this for both front pieces)


Attach the front sleeve to the back sleeve along the centre seam you created. Match them up at the bottom (where the sleeve hem will be) and stitch just to the top of the front sleeve.


Flip your sleeve over and top stitch that seam, pushing the seam allowance toward the back sleeve. As you sew up past the front sleeve, fold the raw edge of the back sleeve under until you've given it a nice tiny little hem.

the stitching is SO dodgy i am so sorry, both my machines were throwing tantrums ಥ‿ಥ

Do the same for the other sleeve.

Attach the front of the sleeve to the front shirt piece. You'll do the same as you did for the front/back seam and do some top stitching to hem the front of the armscye.

Find the centre back and centre front of your shirt, pinning the centre back and centre front of your neckband to them. Distribute the neckband around the shirt evenly, remembering that you're going to have a gap in the front shoulders. I began with the inside, stitching the right side of the neckband to the wrong side of the shirt. Use a zig zag stitch!

Fold the neckband over to the outside of the shirt and fold it under, pinning and stitching to enclose the seam allowances.

hem your sleeves and bottom of the shirt (unlike me, haha)!


VOILA you are done! This would be so great for t-shirt surgeries and upcycling bits of knit fabric!

It literally did not occur to me until right now that my last SMS20 make was also sailor moon ಥ‿ಥ

When life gives you lemons, make a pink lemonade sailor moon tee! There’s so much going on in the world right now, and i don’t like to complain because everyone is going through their own things as well as living through a freaking pandemic. Sewing-wise, this was a MISSION but i’m pleased to say that despite no ink (i ordered some nearly two months ago to be prepared, but it still hasnt arrived), no fabric (ordered some last week but i guess the easter break has delayed shipping even more, even though the shop is in town LOL), and entertaining three kids who need to interrupt me every ten minutes so focus is an ISSUE - i have DONE IT. The pattern itself is easy peasy and I absolutely adore it! Calling this one a TNT already!

The Nova Sweatshirt pattern is by Sinclair Patterns, and despite having a minor freakout that the main plan i had for it was not going to work out since my fabric hadn't arrived (i have a great stash, but the basic colours are not there. all i needed was white knit!) i realised that this was NOT who i am. I am resourceful, i rarely buy anything new so i scrounged around some more and found something that was going to WORK and wow, does it work!



JayJays recently sold a bunch of sailor moon tees, and i broke my Buy Nothing New/Fast Fashion rule last year to buy two for myself. Then my dad showed up a week later with every other shirt in their series for me! I have like 6 sailor moon shirts now!! I had a double up of this pink one so it was already in my t-shirt surgery stash. The yellow knit was an amazing find at the op shop pre-corona, metres and metres of this butter-soft mystery knit that def has some sort of spandex percentage in it. They just worked so great together it was super exciting pulling this all together.



The ties are just the leftovers of the shirt after I cut the front & back pieces from it, I joined the strips together like bias binding but left them raw on all the edges so they kind of curl a little. i like the look (even though I am heavily opposed to raw edges as a design feature!)


I sewed up the M size, which is a US 8 and despite the size i still had 40 pages to print. It kinda freaked me out a little bit since I knew my ink was running extremely low (like the black ink was coming out this weird dark red that eventually faded to an orange until it ran out completely! I really milked that cartridge within an inch of its life ahah!) Still, i wanted to have all the options included with the necklines. I wasn't originally even going to do a hood so i'm glad I did print it out anyway! This pattern is TRIMLESS which means you don't need to be cutting any edges, it's brilliant, just glue them together. Small things like this make me very happy.



i cropped it by measuring from my clavicle down to where I wanted the shirt to sit. It was 36cm so i just measured that down the centre front of the pattern piece and added an extra centimetre for seam allowance! Instead of cuffs on the sleeves or a band for the hem i opted just for a zigzag stitched hem (which is a little lol since I love adding bands to the bottom of everything!). I'm really excited to make more of this pattern in a billion different ways!



This top would go so cute with these air maxes i’ve had my eye on, maybe a little treat to myself after the pandemic?! You can see all my Sew My Style posts here. I'll also be linking other leaders' posts on that page as well!

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New to Sew My Style? Learn more and join in here.

Sew My Style 2020 includes these talented sewists, catch up on their #SMS20 posts:

Aaronica @ The Needle & The Bell | Leanne @ Thready For It | Ari @ Max California | Minna @ The Shapes of Fabric | Carol @ Chatterstitch | Michele @ WinMichele | Julian @ Julian Creates | Florence @ FTMom3 | Kelsey @ Seam Lined Living | Kris @ Sew Notes | Laura @ The Specky Seamstress | Samantha @ The Rural Sewist | Sarah @ Haraz Handmade | Shelby @ Handmade Shelby | Simone @ Intensely Distracted | and SMS20 Coordinator Paulette @ Petite Font

To stay up-to-date with all the #SMS20 news, pattern discounts and inspiration, be sure to subscribe to the newsletter at Sew My Style 2020.



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hello friends! I am back with some more Sew My Style goodness! I still haven’t finished my summit pack (I was waiting for a specific zip to come back into stock but priorities have definitely shifted since then) and while I had good intentions in sewing the Willa Jacket and the Gelato last month those didn’t happen either. Who could predict what 2020 has thrown at us, huh? I still do intend to sew all the patterns for #SMS20, though, so don’t give up on me yet! this months patterns are the Nova Sweatshirt and the Redwood Vest and guess which one I’ve got!

 Not a hard guess if you know me at all, but I chose the Nova since I have my very own little space boy named Nova! I may be a little partial to the name.

 The Nova sweatshirt is a fantastic basic pattern that everyone really needs in their pattern libraries, not only bc it’s a great pattern but because it’s a raglan sleeve top with a handful of different variations and is very easy to hack! Today I’m going to run through some really fun inspiration on how to make this pattern more (if you want to!)

 Pattern Features 

•  sizes XS-XL/US0-US22 / UK8-UK26 
• Also features regular/petite/tall sizing 
•  crew neck, cowl or hoodie options 
•  pockets: kangaroo or chest 
•  optional drawstring around hem 

 Inspiration

 lengths! from cropped to maxi, you can easily play around with the nova sweatshirt and transform it instantly from a shirt/hoodie into a cropped top or a dress. If you’re going for a dress you can also play with having a drawstring around the waist or these super cute ties. I feel it’s a style that’s been around for a while but I’m only just noticing it now? I like the idea of cutting the tee in the middle of the body, too, and adding a gathered ruffled there for some sort of peplum style.

maxi dress // crop // regular // dress

drawstring // ties

 sleeves! this is a big one since the raglan cut sleeves already feel like such a statement to me, they’re iconic! make a bigger impact by playing around with them. contrast sleeves are an easy go to, not just by having them a different colour than your main fabric but doing them in a mesh or a lace for a pretty, sheer detail. Other ideas pictured are layered sleeves, pleating or fringing or elbow patches. I love the idea of a flutter sleeve which can be done with some slashing-and-spreading of the sleeve pattern. ultimate procraftinator has a tutorial on how to make it sleeveless. I’m so in love with the idea of reconstructing an existing shirt and adding the sleeves to the end of 3/4 nova sleeves. There’s also lace-up sleeves and I swear I have seen shirts with zippers on that front armscye seam but I cannot find a reference pic at all, unfortunately!

sheer sporty // mesh contrast // sheer // peekaboo // contrast & fringe

reconstruction // flutter sleeve

double sleeve // cut outs // peplum

 you could added some printed elastic/knitted cuffs as neckbands and/or sleeve and hem bands for a fun contrast. tessuti has a tutorial on how to add a ruffle around the body although it is for woven fabrics (remember the way the fabrics needs to stretch around your body if doing this up in the recommended knits!)


 ALTERNATIVELY you could literally just sew yourself a straight up nova tee with no extra bells and whistles!

 also check out the #novaraglan tag on Instagram for more makes and inspiration (don’t forget to add you own, with the #sms20 tag too!) and don’t forget to make sure you’ve joined the Sew My Style 2020 VIPS Facebook group too! I’ve added the above inspiration pics to my #sms20 nova sweatshirt Pinterest board, as well as SO MANY OTHERS. you’re going to wind up wanting to sew fifty of these I swear.

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New to Sew My Style? Learn more and join in here.

Sew My Style 2020 includes these talented sewists, catch up on their #SMS20 posts:

Aaronica @ The Needle & The Bell | Leanne @ Thready For It | Ari @ Max California | Minna @ The Shapes of Fabric | Carol @ Chatterstitch | Michele @ WinMichele | Julian @ Julian Creates | Florence @ FTMom3 | Kelsey @ Seam Lined Living | Kris @ Sew Notes | Laura @ The Specky Seamstress | Samantha @ The Rural Sewist | Sarah @ Haraz Handmade | Shelby @ Handmade Shelby | Simone @ Intensely Distracted | and SMS20 Coordinator Paulette @ Petite Font

To stay up-to-date with all the #SMS20 news, pattern discounts and inspiration, be sure to subscribe to the newsletter at Sew My Style 2020.




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