BatWing Tunic in Waffle Knit

The tunic formerly known as Batty seemed a great choice for my first foray into waffle knits. I normally don’t gravitate toward waffle knits. They look too much like thermal long johns, in my opinion. But…I did love the taupe color I saw on Cali Fabrics, as well as the (yet-to-be-sewn) terracotta.

So, I figured if I’m embracing the spirit of long johns, I’ll go with the coziest, most forgiving sweater in my repertoire at this point: the Batty (BatWing) Tunic from George + Ginger.

About the Fabric

• 3 yards of Taupe Chunky Waffle Knit
• Content: 77% Rayon/22% Polyester/1% Spandex
• Midweight
• Horizontal stretch: 50%
• Vertical stretch: 25%

Cali calls it “chunky”, which in my mind suggests a much heavier weight than this actually is. This has a pretty open weave to it which makes it quite sheer and a little drafty. The barely-worth-mentioning amount of spandex gives it a loose recovery, so it’s not going to hold much shape—which is fine on a pattern with so much ease.

As you can see, the drape is absolutely phenomenal. I suppose the loose weave lends itself to that in spite of it being a midweight fabric.

You may wonder about fabric like this with an open weave and how it behaves while sewing. As I always do, I start every seam with a small piece of tear-away stabilizer to keep the needle plate from eating my fabric, and that’s all the special treatment required. It sewed up just fine.

About This Make

• Same as last time, this is a size 0 with no grading.
• I used the same obnoxious thread color trick for the basting around the sleeves so it was easy to remove afterward, and just like last time, I sewed the basting stitches at a 1/4″ seam allowance, and the final seam at 3/8″.

Notes for Next Time

• I wouldn’t change anything.
• I am wondering if there’s another size down I could possibly try to bring the neck and bottom of the bodice in more.
• I’ve forgotten until this moment that the updated pattern now has a cardigan option. I wonder if I should earmark my terracotta waffle knit for that. Although, I am a little concerned about all that sleeve weight pulling a cardigan down my shoulders. Not comfortable. I also like a more fitted silhouette when layering… I probably won’t make the cardigan. I have other cardigan patterns I’m more interested in—Laura from Sinclair, for example. I’ve had this for ages and haven’t made it yet. I should. And I got a bunch of white rib knit in a Boho Fabrics clearance box that may just be perfect for it.
• Be sure to sew closer to the fold on the hem. My hem seam on this one is more centered than I want it to be.

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