Just like you did with the sleeves, slide the hem band up over the bottom of the shirt, matching raw edges and pinning. Sew together, stretching the hem band slightly as needed to fit. Flip it down and press well. Alright, now that you all think I’m a stinky person, let’s see how easy it is to make this top. Women’s batwing top pattern Finally, you’ll add the hemband. This is the exact same process you used with the sleeve bands. Sew the two hem band pieces together, right sides together, along the short ends. Fold it in half so the wrong sides are together and seams are hidden. Stop and try it on! You may want the band to hug your hips, in which case you’ll probably need to take a little width out. If you decide to do that, decide if you also want to narrow the bottom of the shirt a bit. If you don’t, and the hem band is much smaller than the bottom of the shirt, the shirt will blouse or puff out slightly where it meets the hemband (which can be a good thing depending on the look you’re going for).* If you don’t want the shirt to blouse out at the bottom, taper the sides of the shirt until the bottom of the shirt is the same width as the hemband. Alternately, you can leave the hemband the original width and the shirt will be straight and roomy at the bottom.

Lay the shirt down flat, right side out. Slide the sleeve cuff over the sleeve portion of the shirt, with the fold of the cuff in toward the body of the shirt. 5 – Match the raw edges of the cuff to the raw edges of the shirt sleeve, then pin and sew. The cuff will be a little smaller than the shirt sleeve, so you’ll want to stretch it gently as you sew to make it fit. Odd, I know, but it works…as long as you sew it up in a soft, drapey, stretchy knit fabric. Anything with too much body will probably end up looking dumpy. But something delicate and drapey will give you the slouchy, relaxed look we’re going for. Plus I gotta say that I love not having material right under my arm. Makes my pits nice and breezy. Not that I’m normally a sweaty person, but you know, chasing kids around all day can give anyone’s deodorant a workout.

Women’s batwing top pattern

I shared the easy tee (simplest women’s t-shirt) pattern a few years ago. Like this one, that shirt has no set in sleeves – just faux cap sleeves made by extending the shirt past the shoulder. It’s a super fast sew, and I’ve made quite a few, but in my old age I’m finding that I prefer shirts that cover more of my upper arm. (I’m the choir director at church, and I hate it when I wear a cap sleeved top on one of the Sundays we sing for the congregation ‘cuz I’m up there waving my arm away like I just don’t care – when in fact I do care, more than I should, about the crazy amount of jiggling going on under my arm.)

Sleeve cuffs (shown folded): 8 inches tall and 12 inches wide (fabric should stretch along the width) Place sleeve cuff down flat. 2 – fold one side over to match the short ends, right sides together. Sew. You now have a circle of material. 3 – fold again, the time with the wrong sides touching, to form a cuff. At this point you want to stop and try the cuff on. When you slide it up above your elbow it should be just tight enough to stay there by itself. Depending on how stretchy your material is, there’s a good chance you’ll need to take it in and resew the seam from step 2. You may notice that the hem band was smaller than the shirt in these photos, but it doesn’t hug my hips much when it’s on – it almost just hangs completely straight. That’s because the fabric I used is very stretchy without much recovery, meaning the hemband ended up stretching out to the width of the shirt.This shirt is actually a pretty weird shape when it’s not on. It looks like this – hence the term batwing top: