Statement Sleeve Raglan Tee Hack

I have been admiring all things statement sleeve for a while now and had an idea percolating in my mind about adapting  a raglan tee rather than adding another pattern to my collection.  Also, who doesn't love a good pattern hack.

As pattern hacks go this was a pretty easy make.  I simply traced off the regular raglan sleeve and squared down from the underarm to give the lower sleeve more fullness.  I then divided the entire centre sleeve vertically in 3cm strips which I slashed and spread a further 3cm.   I wanted to add an elastic casing at the neckline of my sleeve so added a further 2.5cm to account for my neckband and then 1.5cm more so I could create the casing.  I also added a further 3cm to the hem to create an elastic cased hem.

The fabric I used is a really soft and drapey rayon lycra that I picked up on the sale table at Fabric Vision last summer.  It is lovely to work with until I hem it so is a fabric that I usually avoid.  This time however, I had bought some hemming tape from Aliexpress and this was a real game changer.  I simply sandwiched my tape between the two layers of the hem and pressed it before finishing it on my coverstitch machine.  This stuff works like magic.  There are no skipped stitches and no tunneling!

I really like my new top, although if I was to make another, I think I would make it slightly more snug in the body.  This is actually not a deal breaker though, and the extra width does not annoy me enough to run in this top.