…McCalls 6164!
I saw a couple of incarnations of McCalls 6164 over at Gigi Sews, and couldn’t believe that this pattern had passed me by. I’m a huge fan of 80s-style pouffy sleeves, so I couldn’t resist grabbing the pattern and sewing view D, which seems to have the most ridiculous sleeves of them all.
The fullness in the sleeve head is created with both pleats and gathers. There is an additional option to do something clever with organza that makes the shoulders defy gravity, but even I thought that was taking things a bit too far.
I made a size Medium, but gave myself a bit of additional room in the waist. All the seams are done on the overlocker, and the neckline and hem simply have the serged edge turned to the inside and topstitched. I might actually go back and make a deeper hem, because it seems to have a tendency to roll up. I also need to make the bottom of the sleeves a little bit narrower. They’re designed to be about six inches longer than your arms, so that they ruche at the bottom, but I’ve got quite little hands and they keep falling down.
It was a really easy top to make, and uses less than two metres of fabric despite the length of the sleeves. For a proper 1980s vibe, I think I’ll be making a crushed velvet one next.