A Batty Tunic for Some Batty Weather

Behold: the ultimate lounge sweater. I’ve been hypnotized by the cover photo of the Batty Tunic pattern by George + Ginger for a while now. When (my fave!) Boho Fabrics had a moving sale, I jumped on several sweater knits, including this cozy, chunky, loose weave. I even scored an extra yard because it was their last cut and they just sent the whole 3-yard cut to me instead of the 2 yards I ordered. Ah, Boho, I heart you.

Armed with the perfect fabric, I found the perfect excuse to cut into it during the dog days of summer: snow.

Yep. It was around 90 degrees today, hazy and smokey, and I was wrapped in this cozy sweater for a toasty photo shoot. I’m not full-blown crazy, because tonight we have a winter storm moving in. You read that right: a winter storm. 4-10 inches of snow by tomorrow night and sub-zero temps.

Batty is a very fitting term, and I’ll be wearing it tomorrow! Maybe I’ll even take a photo in this same spot tomorrow for dramatic effect.

About the Pattern

It’s an incredibly easy sew. The most intensive part is the sleeve gathers, and even that is easy. Full disclosure: your fabric choice, as always, has the potential to complicate matters.

The instructions had one little annoying flaw when it came to the gathers. They say to match the gathers to the width of the sleeve cuff. It should be the width of the FOLDED sleeve cuff.

1/4″ seam allowance in conjunction with this particular fabric was uncomfortably small.

About the Fabric

Sweater knits are among my favorite kind of fabrics to wear, but they can be challenging to work with. They can be especially easy to overstretch and distort while sewing, and this teal tracks sweater knit was no exception.

As I always do when sewing knits, I start every seam with a little piece of stabilizer beneath the fabric. Without fail, it keeps my machine from “eating” the fabric, and gives a nice clean start to the seam. Once started, my machine sews really well, and it handled the open weave of this knit just fine.

There was a little shedding of the fabric along the cut edges, and at times it was a little difficult to keep an even seam allowance.

Even with the added difficulty working with it, I still love this fabric. It’s so soft, warm–I wouldn’t stand in a stiff, frozen breeze with it though; it is LOOSE weave–and it has wonderful drape. I want to find a slouchy hat/beanie/beret pattern and make a matching hat out of it, a la:

Notes for Next Time

• If using a similar fabric, take the time to use wonder tape around the hem. I didn’t on this make and it really stretched the fabric out. It’s still wavy even after pressing and washing/drying.
• Use an obnoxious color of thread for creating the gathers. It’ll make it a lot easier to see and remove afterward, and I definitely had to remove it because the cuff had absolutely no stretch when leaving those threads in place.
• The neck opening is HUGE. Like, way too huge. I want to do something different with the neckline. Smaller? Smaller and V-neck? Cowl? I’m debating adding some kind of cross straps to give a little more structure/interest to the neck.
• It’s definitely roomy enough that I could probably sew with a larger seam allowance. It’d definitely be more forgiving on any fabric similar to this.

Project Settings