I grabbed this fabric down in LA at Michael Levine (my go-to for one of a kind fabric). It is this beautiful rose gold on soft stretchy knit. It is lightweight and has a gorgeous drape. A relaxed ralgan sleeve sweatshirt makes a perfect way to wear sequins in a less dressy kind of way. Throw on some boyfriend jeans and heals for a great balance of glam….but not too glam.
Click through for the full sequin sweatshirt tutorial…
Materials:
- 1 yard of stretchy sequin fabric (I used this fabric) I wear a size small and used every ounce of fabric, so grab another 1/2 yard for larger sizes or just to be safe.
- Matching thread
- Sweatshirt you already own to create the pattern
- Pattern paper
- Durable scissors
- Extra needles (just in case!)
1: Using a sweatshirt that you have, lay it on your pattern paper and outline each section of the sweatshirt with a pen or highlighter to create your pattern. Make sure your stretch in the fabric goes across with each piece of your pattern to give you the stretch when putting it on.
2: Cut out your pattern pieces with your scissors. I kept my nice fabric scissors away from this fabric and just used an older pair that I had since I was afraid my nice ones might get dull cutting through all those sequins.
3: Lay your front and back sections rt sides together and stitch up the sides as pictured above.
*sewing tip- stitching on sequins might be a little intimidating, but don’t stress too much! I just used my universal needle (I wouldn’t recommend a thinner one made for stitching knits). I even serged all my raw ends on my serger. This step isn’t necessary since the ends won’t fray, it just gives the garment a more professional look. I did break a few needles while serging, so I would suggest keeping a few extra needles on hand. I found that they broke more when I was serging over seams or more than 2 layers of the fabric, so just be careful and prepared.
4: Fold your sleeves in half length-wise, rt sides together and stitch up the longer ends, keeping the shorter ends open (see picture above)
5. Insert your sleeves by placing the sleeves and top rt sides together. When you pin in it will form a big V shape. Stitch up and down the front and back to attach the sleeves, but leave the neckline open.
6: Fold the neckline under 1/2″ twice and straight-stitch all around. Fold the sleeves under about 1/2″ and use a stretch stitch or double needle to stitch so that you will be able to stretch the fabric when puling up your sleeves. Fold the bottom under about 1″ and use the same technique.