Hilary and the Short Sleeves

Here’s the happy result of a quick and simple hack that I’ve been meaning to try out for a while.

We released our Hilary Top pattern almost a year ago. I have a linen one, made up exactly as per the pattern, and back in June I sewed up this silk version without the peplum. A few months ago I pinned this cute Ace & Jig number and I’ve been scheming a short sleeve version ever since.

When our super lovely check washed linens arrived I knew those pattern/fabric stars had aligned and after what equates to a pretty ridiculous amount of indecision, I settled on Mina Check Natural. If you’re interested in making this up, you’ll need 1.4 – 1.6 metres, depending on your size.

As pattern hacks go, this one’s super straightforward. I wanted good sleeve volume (as I seem to want a lot these days) so I slashed and spread the sleeve piece in three places, like this.

That’s given me an extra 33cm of glorious sleeve width – 11cm at the widest point of each slash – and a whole lot of beautiful, billow-y goodness. The sleeve length (from underarm) is 17cm.

And that’s it. As I mentioned in this post, making this pattern without the peplum really does make for a speedy sew. And now, with these puffy short sleeves, Hilary just became a whole lot more versatile too.