Ok so this really shouldn’t be a “how to” but more so a question of “why” would a 32 year old be wearing a crop top? But now was the time for me to do it. I was in bed all week with what may or may not have been the flu, which means I am now only one stomach virus away from my goal weight. Ha, ok JUST KIDDING. Seriously kidding. I am just quoting The Devil Wears Prada. I do not promote puking as a form of weight loss. Bad joke. Let’s move on. But seriously I was sick all week. And on Sunday I was finally well enough to roll my body out of bed only to discover that it was 60 degrees and sunny outside. Perfect time to wear my newly hacked Shoreline Boatneck top as a crop top paired with a self drafted long maxi skirt. Before I get into the details of how I hacked one of may favorite shirt patterns, let’s talk about this fabric.
I love the idea of mixing prints and have recently found tons of inspiration to try it myself.
Luckily for me the Winged collection from Bonnie Christine for Art Gallery Fabrics was filled with tons of beautiful floral prints and spring colors. I picked up two yards of the Nesting Blooms Warm in a voile and a yard and a half of the Plumage Apricot in Knit from Five Eighth Seams awhile back and finally decided that they were destined to stay together. Since one print has a bigger, bolder print and the other was more subtle and smaller, they paired together really well. I think if both the prints are big and bold (such as having two different floral prints together) it can be overwhelming. But I have found that mixing stripes with floral, or mixing polka dot with an aztec print, for example, there is enough of a contrast to make it interesting without being tacky. 
The skirt is a self drafted maxi skirt that I made by mimicking an old skirt in my closet. I will post a tutorial on that sometime in the future. The shirt comes from the Shoreline Boatneck pattern by Blank Slate patterns. I tied the shirt in a knot in the back to make it a crop top and altered the pattern to give myself fitted sleeves. Here is how the fitted sleeves were done
How to alter the sleeves of your Shoreline Boatneck:
The Shoreline Boatneck comes with three sleeve options: short sleeve, 3/4 sleeve, or long sleeve. (as seen below). For this particular make, I wanted to have the long sleeves but with more of a fitted feel. I was able to do this by simply using an old shirt made from the same material as my guide to alter the pattern.
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Step 1. Cut out your sleeve pattern pieces as normal and then fold in half down the length of the sleeve. 
Step 2. Lay your old shirt on top of the pattern, matching the shoulder seam of the shirt to the top of the rounded armscye of the pattern.
Step 3. Draw a line on your pattern piece that is 5/8 in away from the shirt to allow for a seam allowance. You can see here that the sleeve of my old shirt is shorter than the pattern piece. No worries about that. I am not concerned with the length. Whats important is that I am now able to have a pattern piece that will be fitted to my arm in the same way that this old shirt was.
Step 4: Using tracing paper or wax paper, trace the new sleeve pattern piece off of the original paper and there you have it! A new, fitted pattern piece.
Side note, and this might be stating the obvious: I gave myself a 5/8 seam allowance when tracing the new piece so that will be the seam allowance I will use when sewing the sleeve together.
Anybody else have a favorite pattern that they have hacked at? See you next time!
