Bracken Crafts- 100 garments: Black top with turn back cuffs

I decided I need a very useful basic top in black or navy because so many of my summer clothing ( and winter clothing!) is patterned ( or bright colours like these shorts) so really what I need right now is some basic plain stuff to co-ordiate with all those lovely patterns.

I bought the black cotton lycra to make leggings but right now I don't need leggings so its best made into something I need now rather than some vague time in the future and me carry on struggling to find stuff that works together now so this top happened.

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I only had 1m of this fabric so not enough for a long sleeved top ( according to most patterns) so originally I thought I will make 3/4 sleeves by folding over what was left after carefully cutting the front and back along each selvedge so leaving a sizable bit of fabric in the centre of my 1m. See below sketch of how to do this. Well its summer after all and even if its a cold rainy day its rare to need long sleeves but I did want to make something I can transition into autumn.

Sadly never thought to take any photos of this but hopefully you can understand what I am on about here.

So I folded the fabric at each edge to cut out the front and bcks on a fold s the pattern directs. Then it hit me that if I fold over the fabric from the centre of the left over fabric, I can get two 3/4 length sleeves because the fabric has no direction to it, so no nap, and from the rest of the fabric - the left over bits from below the front and back would make cuffs.

Sketch of my fabric layout:

Well I lined up the sleeve pattern on each bit of fabric that was left below where I cut out the front and back and you probably will have to do as I did and cut each cuff seperately in order to make this work.

So where I had already cut out the sleeves - sleeves still attached to the paper pattern pieces - you fold over the left over bit of fabric to make it double, and you cut with the cuff edge on the fold and line up with rest of sleeve in order to keep the sleeve shape and then cut as big a cuff as I could from the bits left at the bottom of where I had cut out the front and back pieces. In my case I managed to make the sleeve full length when its not cuffed but it will work with less fabric too. You would just get a shorter cuff but it will still look good. This can then become a fold back cuff which is something I have not ever made before and do not have in my wardrobe at the moment.

You need to sew the cuff seperately to the rest of the sleeve. So to begin you make the cuff into a tube shape and here be careful which side you sew. I sewed the wrong bit first then had to unpick and sew it correctly. Then sew the sleeve to the top and close the side seams before you attach the cuff. Check the circumfeace of your cuff is the same as the bottom of the sleeve so the sew up without any ruffling. To attach the cuff the cuff needs to be folded inside itself and you just add it doubled over to end of sleeve - hopefully this will make sense!

The overlocking goes inside the sleeve and the cuff will then turn back and look neat. So you can also wear the sleeves with cuff down to make them full length and then they have a nice look without hems. That is assuming you have enough fabric for full length but I think this idea will work on shorter cuffs too.

Anyway this is a way to use just 1m of stretch fabric to make a long sleeved top - this is 4-way stretch so dancewear/ sportswear/ leggings type stretchy. So far I have not found any pattern that only uses 1m of fabric for a long sleeved top but most patterns tell you to cut out ina way that wastes loads of fabric. I generally ignore the layout anyway. Often if you cut carefully and ignore the pattern payout the pattern companies give you, you can get another half a top - so have contrast back and front maybe out of the offcuts and I need to do that. This fabric was not cheap at £8.95/m but its still a reasonbly priced top and better quality and style than I would be able to buy for that kind of money on the High Street - and its unique.