Leopard Collar Batwing Top

In the absense of a clever name for this garment, I've gone with a 'does what it says on the tin' type of title today. But hush now, it's sleeping. As I type now, this garment is mere hours old.

I developed this pattern yesterday morning as soon as I got into work, which is a very uncharacteristically proactive move for me on any morning, let alone a Monday morning. But to be honest, I'd been making batwing dresses and tops similar to this all last week so I already had an existing pattern as a starting point. I decided our range might benefit from the addition of a less extreme batwing shape for jersey with a contrast woven collar. My thinking being that a slimmer batwing might be more accommodating for wearing other garments on top of it, and contrast collars are absolutely everywhere in high street shops at the moment. Oh, and they are easy and relatively quick to make.

So the batch I made yesterday used various lengths of stretchy lace donated from a fabric manufacturer for the body and plain dove grey cotton for the collar. Today's batch, in case you can't guess, were made from various qualities of drapey black jersey from the same manufacturer source with leopard printed cotton twill that I'd squirrelled away since the summer for the collars.

As I may have mentioned in the past, I am allowed from time to time, if materials are sufficiently sufficient, to cut out an one of whatever I'm making for myself. I haven't made myself anything from our range for ages and this style appealed to me for a few different reasons. The silhouette and overall type of garment is something of a departure for me. I'd been thinking for a while about making myself a new jersey top but hadn't come up with an idea for anything other than a mild variation on something I already have. As I've wittered about before, I'm a massive fan of mid-Twentieth century kimono sleeve styles and this batwing top is kind of a distant cousin of those styles.

The issue that has always put me off batwing styles before is the whole difficulty with layering other garments over the top of them. I often feel cold so I'm a massive fan of the humble cardigan, I'm hoping that this higher underarm curve will allow for some looser cardigans to fit over the top.

During my mid-twenties, I had a couple of tops made from drapey jersey like the stuff I've used here. I wore them to death as they felt so nice but I've never really had access to this type of stuff in pure fabric form, nor a clue of what to do with it. In my more recent past, I tended to avoid drapey stuff that might disguise my curves, but this design has just a little drapery around the arms and is fairly figure hugging where it counts.

I like this collar because it's a bit of a diversion from the rounded Peter Pan shape which I feel I have already had the last word on with my exaggerated collar sweat shirt remake! Plus I have made so many garments with rounded Peter Pan collars in the last year that it's getting silly. BTW, does anyone have an idea of what this shape of collar is called? Is it a notched collar or something? My pattern cutting book has failed to provide an answer. Oh, and you well know my thoughts on leopard print.