Dolman Sleeve

Cut the sleeve and the body from one continuous piece of fabric, tapering from a deep, roomy armhole down to a snug cuff at the wrist, and you've got a dolman sleeve. There's no separate panel set into a shoulder seam — the armhole can run 8 to 10 inches deep, wide enough that the sleeve looks almost batwing-shaped when the arm lifts. That depth is what gives the style its flowy drape across the shoulders.

Women's fashion tops built this way — like Next Level's ladies' fashion-fit blanks — drape rather than cling, which is why boutique brands reach for a dolman sleeve over a standard set-in cut. We've seen buyers order a dolman style expecting the same torso width as a regular tee and get something noticeably roomier through the upper body, simply because of how much fabric that sleeve carries.

Printers need to treat the front panel differently: the extra drape means fabric doesn't sit flat under a platen the way a fitted tee does, so a large front graphic can shift slightly if the shirt isn't taped down before the pull. Centering artwork a little higher, above where the drape loosens, keeps a print looking square once worn.

The misconception we hear most: a dolman sleeve and a batwing sleeve get treated as two different things, but they're the same silhouette — dolman is just the trade term, batwing the general-retail one.