Made for Mermaids - Pepper Puff Sleeve Top

Goodness, I’m the worst! I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve been up on the blog! Which is probably because it has been forever. I am so sorry. Please accept my sincerest apology! (But just know that I will most likely do it again..) But I digress…

Have you seen the new Pepper pattern that Made for Mermaids released last month?! (Okay, it is SO weird that it’s December already) Look how stinking cute those sleeves are! And I am obsessed with the mock turtle neck right now. This pattern is exactly what my wardrobe needed for a nice little change up.

So far, I’ve made the short sleeve and long sleeve with the long cuff versions, both with the mock turtle neck and fitted bodice. There are a few slight modifications I made for it to fit me better and I will go over those down below.

Modifications

So, to start off, I sewed up a size purple, graded down to pink at the hips (this is usually something I have to do for all patterns from almost every PDF pattern company). B 34″, W 27.5-28″, H 36″ and I’m 5’4 for reference.

I’ll start off with the short sleeves. I might not have measured my upper arm/bicep very well, but I found that the short sleeve cuffs were a little too snug in size purple. They aren’t uncomfortable by any means, but because they are a little tight, they naturally sit higher on my arm, giving me more puff in the sleeve that I want. I’m pretty sure that if I use a cuff width closer to my bicep measurement, it will be less likely to ride up and sit at the top of my bicep. Looking at these pictures, it doesn’t look bad by any means, but I’d prefer them to sit a tad lower, similar to some of the photos on the pattern listing.

Flowy Short Sleeve Hack – I love the look of the short sleeves without the cuffs. It’s a fun little change! It reminds me a bit of a flutter sleeves, but a little different. However, the short sleeves are a little on the short side to leave them as is (no cuffs) with the short sleeve cuffs cutline. If you want to try out the flowy/flutter sleeves, I’d suggest adding about an inch, maybe 1.5″ to the cut line. This will give you a bit of a hem allowance or you could do something fun like a rolled hem.

Long Sleeve/Long Cuffs – I love the long cuffs but they are SO long! I ended up shortening them by about 2.25″. For the cuff to sit at the end of my wrist, the other side of the cuff where the sleeve attaches sat in the middle and larger part of my forearm. It wasn’t really comfortable. It also made it feel really tight on my forearm and loose at my wrist. (Luckily, I only had one cuff sewn on when I discovered this, so I only had to seam rip one off.) It feels 100x better like this!

Mock Turtle NEck

Like I said before, I LOVE the mock turtle neck. It’s cute and it’s different from anything else in my closet. The one thing I did change with this is I made it tighter. I’m not really sure if it’s intended to be looser or if I just have a smaller neck than the rest of my measurements. I ended up sewing on the Grey mock turtle neckband on my Purple bodice (which ended up being roughly 1.2″ on the fold). This was PERFECT. At least or DBP.

I want to sew this up in a sweater knit, but if its any thicker, I might not need to make the band more snug. Note to self, try on the neckband first! (It beats having to rip out all the seams later) Naturally, you can’t try on any neckband, but the mock turtle neck is fine since we are determining how snug it is to your neck. Keep in mind that if you have to shorten your mock turtle neckband by more than 2 sizes, you may need to also adjust the neckline on the bodice.

My hubby isn’t a huge fan on the puff sleeves. He claims it’s because he likes my “sexy” arms (his words not mine!) and the puffy sleeves hide them. Meh, whatever! I like it and I think it’s super fun. I definitely see at least a few more of these making their way in my closet soon enough! I definitely need some variety in my wardrobe!

Both of the fabrics featured are from Mily Mae Fabrics!

Cheers!