Cap Sleeve Copycat Tee

This is just a quick post that I'm getting in under the wire for Made by Rae's Spring Top Sewalong!

I decided to use this bare yard of the lovely Retro Botanical Mix printed cotton knit from Girl Charlee to recreate one of my favorite tops in my wardrobe.  The features I love about it are:

1.  Slightly gathered cap sleeve
2.  Longer than your average t-shirt
3.  self-belted

So I just cut around the shape of that top to get my pattern, making sure to extend the shoulders so I could make a gathered cap sleeve, serged the side seams and shoulder seams, did a zig-zag hem at the bottom, gathered the shoulders slightly, and added a binding using this AWESOME method from Kitschy Coo.  Then I made a little tube of fabric out of the same knit I used for the binding, and decided not to attach it to the top or add any belt loops so that I can move the belt around for different effects:

To be clear, I still have a waist in #3--just no waistband ;)

Since the knit was stretchy enough, I just sewed it closed so I have to slip it on over the shirt, but I decided to do it that way instead of making a strip long enough to tie because the knot always bothers me when I'm leaning back against something.  But a  strip long enough to tie would work great too--and then you'd have the option of tying it in the front as well!

Here's the back view:

This may just be my favorite thing I've sewn for myself yet!  Thanks for the inspiration, Rae!