Literally, Wearing a Square
Curiosity overcame me during the week, and I tried out the square-shaped top I had in my sketchbook, originally from Pinterest. I was very interested to see what it would look like on a body.
For fabric, I had some striped soft double-knit that Mum gave me. The stripes are narrow on one side and wide the reverse.
I puzzled for some time over the dimensions to cut it. In the end, the most logical size was 75cm x 75cm, to use the full width of the 150cm wide fabric. Rushing because I was supposed to be doing dinner prep, I cut and sewed it in only half an hour.
I was very pleasantly surprised! I sewed together the square and tried it on without the sleeves or waistband. Very wearable!
Then I cut a waistband and sleeves in ribbing and sewed them on. Also very wearable! It’s a little restrictive, as in, I wouldn’t wear it to play volleyball, but I could see myself wearing this even though I rarely wear knit fabrics.
Mum visited for dinner and tried it on and was equally impressed. In fact, she took it home with her. (There’s enough striped fabric left to make another one, so I may do that).
If you want to try “wearing a square”, here’s how I cut mine:
Btw, I’m B35″ W32″ H40″ with reasonably skinny arms. If you need to increase the size of the square, try it on without the ribbing first and see how long the sleeves need to be.
It’s very economical on fabric – excellent if you have a length of knit fabric that’s too short for a t-shirt or leggings.
So, a zero waste top that was a good exercise in drape, silhouette and quirky armhole positions.
Cheers!
I have made a couple of these, machine knit. I extended the sleeves beyond the square . The jumpers are very wearable.
It would be GREAT machine-knitted, and very comfortable.
I feel as though I’ve made something like this in the past, however I’m going to give it a go using your instructions. I love the fact that the stripes finish up on the diagonal. Such a fun top!
It is a pretty fun top, and no big outlay of fabric either.
A must try thank you
Give it a whirl!
Wow, that is really interesting. I’ve seen that sketch before in one of your posts, but could not wrap my brain around how it would work.
Mum said exactly the same thing!!!
That’s fun! I only wear any kind of sleeves in the winter. I need sleeveless for the rest of the year. I live in tank tops.
I feel like I’m too old for tube tops, & I don’t like my bra straps showing anyway
I *do* wear rectangle dresses on the hottest days of the summer though
A sleeveless version of this could be just right?
Thank for taking the plunge and giving it a go, Liz
Shall try to remember this for when I get my stash out of storage!
del
Cheers, Del. When you get your stash back, it will be like shopping again but everything will be free! 🙂
Thanks, I will try this one, and let you know how I go. I have a lot of knit fabrics, smaller pieces( some leftover from making Easter drama costumes) and could also combine fabrics.
I hope it goes well for you:) Could be a good stash-buster.
So glad you tried it! Looks a lot like my sweater minus the sleeves. I’ll DM you a picture
Cheers Michelle, – look forward to seeing it. Thanks for the encouragement last week.
Liz, this is fantastic – I am going to give this a go – a great project to get my sew-jo in gear. Thanks for the inspiration.
I hope it goes well for you! And I hope your sew-jo kicks in.
Took my copy of your pattern book to Sewing Guild on Saturday. There
was great interest .
Thanks so much, Julie!