As summer draws to a close, it’s important to pencil in all of the beach time you can. Luckily, our Petal Cover-Up Free Sewing Pattern is the perfect quick, 24-hour sewing pattern. Stitch it up in the morning, and get ready for a sand and sea filled afternoon! Use a crochet lace fabric for a breezy beach cover-up, a printed rayon with an added fringe trim for a boho vibe, or perhaps a silky chiffon or chantilly lace for a lingerie look. Keep in mind that if you’re using a similar fabric and want to use its decorative edge as the hem, you’ll need more fabric!
Purchase Materials Used Below:
- 4 yards of White Cluny Lace with Scalloped Eyelash Edges
- 1 yard of Cream Fine Floral Lace Trim – 0.5″
- 1 yard of Medium Pink Recycled Polyester Petersham Grosgrain Ribbon – 9mm
- 1 spool of 20 White 1000m Gutermann Sew All Thread
- MDF321 – The Petal Cover-Up Free Sewing Pattern (free download below!)
Alternative Recommended Fabrics:
How to sew the casing strips:
All seam allowances 1/2″.
Step 1
Press the casing strips ½” in on all sides.
Step 2
Sew the button holes to the front pattern piece. Since I used lace, I skipped this step.
Step 3
Wrong sides together, place a casing strip to the front pattern piece. Match it to the casing lines that you transferred during the pattern cutting process. As pictured, the ends of the strips should stop about ¾” from the raw edge. Pin and topstitch both sides lengthwise, leaving the short ends free. Repeat on the back piece.
Step 4
Hem the bottom edge of the front and back pieces, then hem the straight edge on each sleeve piece. I used the scalloped edge of the fabric for all ends, so I didn’t hem this garment.
Step 5
Right sides together, pin and sew the two shoulders. Leave the sides of the garment free.
How to attach the sleeves:
Step 1
Unfold and lay the garment flat, right side up. It should be one long rectangular piece with a hole in the middle.
Step 2
Right sides together, line up the curved edge of the sleeve to one long side of the garment. Match notches to the casing strips. Sew, and repeat on the other side. Be careful not to sew over the short ends of the casing strips!
How to complete the garment:
We’re going to finish the neckline with some lace.
Step 1
Pin the wrong side of the lace to the right edge of the neckline. Sew along the edge.
Step 2
Turn the lace to the underside of the neckline, pin, and topstich two rows. I chose to leave the scalloped edge slightly visible.
Step 3
Insert your drawstring or ribbon into the casings. I used grosgrain ribbon here. Because you left the casing ends free, the ribbon will be visible on the inside sides of the garment. This is so it can jump over the seams and excess sleeve fabric, as pictured below.
That’s it! Where will you be wearing your Petal Cover-Up? Let us know in the comments below!
This is so cute!!! and I think it also would be a cute flowy summer top if you use a flowy cotton or something!
Hey, I am willing and ready to sew this garment, everything is prepared but I am a bit surprised that the instructions say that I need to cut only 1 C piece ? Don’t I need 2 (1 for each side) ?
Hi Tara, we’re sorry for the delay in responding to your question! We get dozens of comments and questions each day, and so many questions get buried and, unfortunately, unanswered. Although this is late, we wanted to respond in case anyone else has the same question: thank you for catching that! We will work on correcting that information. You are right, the cut number for C is 2.
I believe the pattern cutting instructions are incorrect. The sleeve piece says ‘Cut 1 on fold’. It should be ‘Cut 2 on fold’. I’m stuck now, because I don’t have enough fabric for the second sleeve. Not happy!
Hi Vickey, we’re so sorry about that 🙁 We are working on correcting that ASAP.
I’m confused by these instructions. The technical drawing shows the sleeve hem being curved, with the sleeve attatched to the bodice by the straight edge, yet the instuctions say the opposite. To hem the sleeves’ straight edge and attatch by the curved ♀️
Hi Yvonne, we’re sorry for the delay in responding to your question! We get dozens of comments and questions each day, and so many questions get buried and, unfortunately, unanswered. Although this is late, we wanted to respond in case anyone else has the same question: because we were using the decorative edge of this lace, we ended up revising our sample- but the technical sketch needs to be updated as the edge is eased in.
Second that the sleeve instructions and pattern aren’t making a lot of sense. It makes more sense that the straight sides are sewn together. Also instructions and pattern are missing how large to make arm hole??
Fortunately I just sewed a kaftan so I might make this without using the pattern.
Fold fabric in half width-wise so that shirt falls to desired length. cut out neckline.
Leave 9 or 11 inch gap for arm pits. Sew the rest of the straight edges together without sewing drawstring casing shut. Curved sleeves facing outward are as with technical drawing so that you look like a butterfly with arms extended.