DIY – Cowl Neck Top Sewing Tutorial with Contrasting Sleeves

Today, I’m ready to try something new and I’m very excited about it. Today we will be sewing a cowl neck top. A cowl necked shirt has a draped neckline that hangs gracefully either in the front, back, or both. I’m excited about it because making the pattern will be a whole new challenge. I can’t wait to see how a three-dimensional feature, like a hanging draped neckline, plays out on a two-dimensional pattern.

So, onward we go!

The skinny:

This piece will be a transitional piece that will work in those in between seasons when you don’t know if it will be warm or cold. This will be a long sleeved shirt with a cowl neckline in the front, and will feature contrasting fabric along the sides of the shirt and under the sleeve. Finally, it will have a little gathered section in the back for some added detail.

Materials:

• shirt you will use as a guide
• pattern paper
• scissors/tape/pencil

• 2 yards of slinky fabric
• matching thread
• 1/4 yard contrasting fabric
• 4 1/4″ elastic band

Cowl Neck Top Sewing Tutorial with Contrasting Sleeves

Instructions:

MAKING THE PATTERN

1. Fold your pattern paper in half. Take the shirt you are using as a guide, fold that in half as well. Place it on the pattern paper so that the folded edged match up. Tuck the arms under and trace around it.

Add your desired seam allowance. Cut this out. This is the back of the shirt.

2. Make a second copy. Lower the front neckline, and then cut this out. We’re going to use this to make the pattern for the front of the shirt, but we’re not quite done with it yet.

Using a fabric measuring tape, measure how deep you want your neckline to be. I’m going to make mine 23″ from neckline to neckline. Divide that number in half and remember it! For mme, 11.5″.

Now we’re going to cut and spread out the pattern. Draw three lines from the center line; two that go up to the top of the shoulder and one that goes to the arm pit  (armscye) area. Cut along the three lines from the center line up to the seam allowance. Don’t cut through the seam allowance.

Spread out the pattern evenly so that the measurement from the front of the neck to the centerline equals the measurement of your desired neckline, divided in half. So for me, 11.5″.

Trace this shape onto a new piece of pattern paper.

Draw a line 2″ above the cowl neckline line for the self-facing. Cut across this line and fold it under. Cut out this new pattern.

3. Now, the sleeves. Fold a piece of pattern in half longways and tuck that piece, fold side up, underneath the armscye area of your back pattern piece.

Trace around the armpit area. Place a shirt you are using as a guide, matching it along the armpit area. Trace around your sleeve.

Add your desired seam and hem allowance. Cut this out. This is your sleeve pattern.

SEWING THE COWL NECK TOP

The Cowl Neck Top Sewing Tutorial continues…

1. Cut out the patterns on your fabric, making sure the stretch goes from side to side.

2. Take the font shirt piece, the pattern with the cowl neckline, if needed, zigzag the edges along the neckline so it won’t fray. Fold it in 2″ and sew in place with a wide, straight stitch.

3. Take the back shirt piece. Fold in and sew along the back neckline.

4. Front sides together, place the front and back shirt pieces together. Pin and sew along the shoulders. This is a little tricky because of the distorted shoulders on the front piece.

5. Next we will attach the sleeves.  Right sides together, match the middle of the shoulder part of the sleeve to the shoulder seam on the dress, pin the sleeve in place, making your way down to the armpits.  Sew this together.  Repeat with the other sleeve.

**If you have really stretchy fabric, don’t fight it and stretch the material to make it fit.  That will give the seam some funky rippling that you probably don’t want.

6. Now, for the fun sides.  I’m going to add a strip of fabric on either side of the shirt.  I made the strip 48″ long and went from 1″ from the bottom of the sleeves to 3″ at the bottom of the shirt.

On each side of the shirt, right sides together, pin and sew the fabric strip to the shirt all the way from the bottom of the sleeves to the bottom of the shirt.

Now, on each side of the shirt, right sides together, pin and sew the other end of each fabric strip to the opposite sides of the shirt, from the end of the sleeves, under the arms to the armpits, and down along the sides to the bottom of the shirt.

7. Hem the bottom of the sleeves and the bottom of the shirt.

8. Now for the gathered detail at the back of the shirt. To get this look, I’m going to add a small strip of an elastic band to the inside of the back of the shirt.

First, try on the shirt inside out and determine where you want the gather to start and end. Mark each end with a pin or chalk. Cut a piece of an elastic band an inch or two smaller than the length between the two pins. Using a zigzag stitch, sew the elastic onto the wrong side of the fabric stretching it as you sew, so that it stretches from one marked end to the other. When you let go, the elastic band will pull the fabric which gives it a nice gather when looking at it from the right side.

Finished! I hope you enjoyed my Cowl Neck Top Sewing Tutorial with Contrasting Sleeves. I did! Like any fun project, this one shirt has spawned a handful of new cowl neck top ideas…

My housekeeping notes:

Stretch Needle:  settings, 10   5.0     2.5

Stretch Needle:  settings, 03   5.0     2.5

Stretch Needle:  settings, 00   3.5     4.0