TA DA!

Solution to the puzzle.

LOL!
Really, that's it, that's what I WANTED to make! Okay, so I purposely lengthened and narrowed the sleeves so they would look like this.


I didn't want the sleeves to have any special gathering or facings so I made them narrow and extra long. The (sort of) sad reality is that I will wear it like this. (And, I will apparently get many compliments after wearing three times in three different situations.)

...Unless I'm outside...and it gets cold...and I don't have a scarf or hat or ear muffs...and I'm REALLY cold. Then and only then will I attempt to pull the neck fabric all the way up and over my head possibly messing up my hair and exposing the "whiteness" of the underside of the fabric.

The original pattern:

Fitting Adjustments: 1) an FBA, 2)a small small back adjustment, and 3) added 1" to the upper arm sleeve length. 4) reduced the sleeve width at the wrist by 1" to make sure that the length extension would stay in place.

The only design alteration was the extended sleeve. True confessions: I HATE sleeves that are too short!! During my Minneapolis years I made a t-shirt top with dolman sleeves that tapered down and I used the same treatment where I just extended the length by about eight inches. Because the sleeve is narrow, all I need to do is push them up to create a natural 3-4" gather. I wore that top to death. Pink and white stripe, comfortable, and reasonably flattering. The sleeves on this top have the same comfortable length. I LOVE.

Fun Fact: I folded the fabric lengthwise to cut the sleeves which I realized too late changed the direction of the dot pattern from arches to scoops but only on one sleeve. Good thing I did that though because without an upside down print on the right sleeve I wouldn't have any way of knowing which is the front and back :)

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