Sagebrush Top X Davenport Dress Sewing Hack

I love the romantic vibes of the Sagebrush Top, but I wanted to create a blouse with slightly subtler sleeves. Recently, I tried combining the Sagebrush Top bodice with the sleeves from the Davenport Dress, and it worked like a dream! In this blog post we show you how to combine them which is super easy to do and a great project for autumn and winter! 

What you need:

• The Sagebrush Top pattern (for the bodice and neckline), get your copy here.
• The Davenport Dress pattern (for the sleeves), get your copy here.
• Your usual sewing tools and fabric

Steps:

• Cut the Sagebrush Bodice 
  Use the Sagebrush pattern as usual for the front, back, ruffle if you want to add it, and the neckline bias. Follow the instructions for constructing the bodice and neckline.
  

• Use the Davenport Sleeve Pieces
  Instead of cutting the Sagebrush puff sleeves, cut out the Davenport sleeves instead. These sleeves are narrower and will give you a more subtle sleeve. The curve of the arm hole is ever so slightly smaller than the Sagebrush sleeve, you can tackle this by cutting a size bigger in the sleeve, or adding 1cm to the seam allowance of the side seam. Make sure to transfer the notches from the sagebrush sleeve to the davenport sleeve.

• Check the Armhole Fit
  The Sagebrush and Davenport armholes are quite similar, but double-check that the notches align. If there’s a slight difference in length, you can ease the sleeve head in gently or make a tiny adjustment to the sleeve cap height. I made a size medium and it fit perfectly with an extra 1cm added to the sleeve seam. 

• Gather and Sew the Sleeves
  Sew the side seam of the sleeve and finish seam. Add gathering stitches to the tops of the Davenport sleeves and attach them to your Sagebrush bodice as you would normally sew a sleeve. As the head of the sleeve on the Davenport is a lot smaller than the Sagebrush, the gathering stitches are there just to ease the sleeve into place but you wont need actual gathers on the sleeve head. 

• Finish the Sagebrush Top
  Complete the sleeve with elastic cuffs and hem the Sagebrush as per the instructions.