{how to} Add Flutter Sleeves To Peasant Tops

Bare with me... this is my first time typing up a tutorial for sewing & I'll be honest, I'm typically really word-y.  So if you get bored with the words, then, well, I'll try to post photos for you as well.  :)

{how to} ADD FLUTTER SLEEVES TO PEASANT TOPS

Step 1 - Cut your pieces.  You can use any ol' peasant pattern, but for this tutorial, I used this one from CKC.   You will follow the pattern for everything EXCEPT for the sleeves.  For this, you will cut as follows:

Size 18 months - (cut 2) 3.5" x 14"
Size 2T - (cut 2) 3.75" x 14.5"

You will also cut two additional pieces that measure 2.25" x 10".

Once cut, all your pieces laid out will be similar to this (note that I did not put a ruffle on my top, so it isn't pictured).

Step 2 - Go ahead & cut our your arm curves on both the sleeves & on the body of the dress / top.  (Follow CKC pattern for this).  Since your flutter sleeve is shorter than the pattern piece, you will notice it has a little overhang at the bottom (see picture below).  Ignore this, just line the pattern up with the top of the sleeve & cut as you would if the sleeve was longer.

This is what your sleeve will look like after the arm curve has been cut out:

Step 3 - Go to the iron & press the bottom (wide) part of your sleeve under by 1/8" and then again by 1/8" to hem it.  Do this to both sleeves.  They will look like this after they are pressed:

Step 4 - Take both of your sleeves to the machine & top stitch down where you just pressed.   They will look like this after you are done:

Step 5 - Take both of your binding pieces to the iron & press them in half lengthwise, wrong sides together.  They will look like this after you are done:

Step 6 - Now you will attach your sleeves to the front & back of your dress/top pieces.  You can follow the CKC pattern for this (section labeled Construction), but remember that your sleeves will look different because they are much shorter than the ones in the CKC pattern.  Yours will look like this:

Once you get all your sleeves sewn on (4 seams total), snip off that little extra tail piece left over from where you hemmed it.  It's not important and will just get in the way later.  :)

Step 7 - Sew up your side seams (this is step 4 on the CKC pattern) - the big difference here is that you will NOT be sewing up your sleeves.  Those are already hemmed.  JUST sew the side seams.  I used my serger, but you can use a zig zag stitch close to the edge.  This will leave your underarm exposed & it will be a raw edge (for now), but we're about to fix that.  Your side seams will look like this when you're done:

Step 8 - Now we are going to finish off those raw under arm edges with the binding strips we made earlier.  What you'll want to do is find the center of each of your binding strips by simply folding it in half & marking it with a pin.

Step 9 - Matching up the raw edges, pin the center of the binding strip to your side seam and then follow the curve of your underarm & pin the binding strip up both sides toward the top of the dress.  It will look like this once it is pinned:

Step 10 - Take this to the machine & stitch the binding onto the armhole.   It will look like this once it's stitched:

Step 11 - Wrap the finished (folded) edge of the binding over to the other edge of your arm hole and pin.  You'll be covering up the raw/exposed edge of the underarm by doing this.  It will look like this once it's pinned:

Step 12 - Take it to the machine & stitch close to the edge of the binding.  It will look like this once it's stitched:

Step 13 - All that's left to do is make the elastic casing at the neck & finish off the bottom!  For the elastic casing, follow the instructions on the CKC pattern (this part is on page 10 of their PDF file).   

This is what your dress/top will look like before you run the elastic through the casing (just so you can see the shape of the dress):

After you run your elastic through the casing...  

If you're choosing to add a ruffle, you will also follow their instructions.  Otherwise, you can just turn under the bottom edge of your dress/top and hem!  Voila!  All finished!  :)