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Saturday, May 26, 2012

Sleeves On Saturdays

The Shirred Wrist Sleeve

This sleeve offers shirring detail along the bottom edge of the sleeve. A very pretty, soft detail, perfect on a blouse, dress or even a t-shirt.
I have not finished my top as I haven't quite decided how I would like to finish the neckline. In the picture you can see the shirring detail on both sleeves. Since the sleeves are not on the body, they want to wing out. Once they are on the arm, they will lay flat against the arm.
I have tried to get a picture of what the sleeve looks like on my arm.
Sorry about the poor pictures. It's a little difficult to photograph your own arm.
I hope that you at least get the idea.
Begin with your straight sleeve pattern.
Determine where you would like the sleeve to end on your arm. I chose to make mine a 3/4 length sleeve. The dotted line in the picture below represents this.
Once you have determined where you would like the sleeve to finish, cut that portion away. Now determine how high up the arm you would like the gathers to go. The dotted line in the picture below represents this.
Now draw in the center tab. Mine is 2". Draw in the tab lines as you see below.

Measure the section where the gathers will be and divide this measurement into 4 equal parts. If your gathers will go further up the sleeve, you may want to divide this number by 6 or even 8. Draw in the sections as you see below. Make sure to number them.
Cut along the tab lines and then over to the under arm seam as you see below. Be careful to not cut through the seam you want your pieces to remain attached. If by chance you do cut through, your pieces are numbered so you will not have a problem with putting them back together.
Cut all of the sections to the underarm seam as you see below.
Spread the sections equally and tape or pin in place. My sections were spread 1 1/2" each. If your fabric is a little bulkier than a light weight fabric, you may want to reduce this amount to 1" between each section.
Now that the sections have been equally spread, connect the lines. The dots that you see in the above picture are at the top of the tab section. Add 1/4" seam allowance to the tab as well as the shirring lines.
The final pattern. Before you sew in the gathering stitches, you will want to clip just shy of the dots. Sew in the gathering lines and gather up. Pin to the tab and then sew the pieces together. Do not sew the gathering stitches in the hem.
As I said, this is a lovely detail on a sleeve. It can turn something basic into something interesting. We will revisit this sleeve in the future as there are other details that can be added.
Hope you're having a lovely weekend.
Rhonda

22 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks Shams! Hope you're having a fun weekend!

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  2. What an interesting sleeve and you make it look so easy. I'm bookmarking your sleeve series for future reference.

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    1. Thanks Bev. Let me know if you give it a try.

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  3. This is such a good idea and your timing is perfect. I need to make some long sleeve shirts for winter and get ever so bored with straight ol' sleeves. Many thanks.

    Now I shall have a gander through your lovely blog, which I have come across via Javi a la dashingmarmot.wordpress.com

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    Replies
    1. Welcome Emily! Thanks for coming by. If you give the sleeve a try, you will need to take it in quite a bit through the arm if you are using a knit in order to get a snug fit. Send pictures if you do give it a try.

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  4. I've just found your sleeve series and I love it!!!! Thank you so much or sharing.

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  5. I have a dress from the 1940s with exactly that sleeve. Very cool that you have shared this.

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  6. This is great! So easy to take in

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  7. love this design. thanks a lot for sharing it with us. pls. show us more of ur work that has to be appreciated.

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  8. thanks for sharing this its so nice pls. share more of ur work. it needs to be appriciated

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  9. Not able to figure out how to sew the sleeve any help ?

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    1. Sew gathering stitches along the curved lines. Gather them up so that the extended curved section is even with the center section. Sew from the end of the sleeve to the point just as if you were sewing a dart. Hope this helps!

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  10. Rhonda,
    If you wanted to do this on just one side of the sleeve, would you recommend doing it to the back? And maybe using a line just slightly to the back of the center of the sleeve for where you cut the vertical line to develop the gathers?
    This is a great sleeve!!
    Bonnie

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for reminding me, I had intended to do another sleeve and do exactly what you have asked. I would put the line about a 1/2" to an 1" over from the center.

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  11. Rhonda,

    If you wanted to do this to just one side of the sleeve, would you recommend the back? And maybe make the vertical line a bit closer to the center, but still toward the back, for where you develop the gathers?

    This is a great sleeve!!

    Bonnie

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  12. I wondered how this sleeves were made,thanks ma'am for such an easy method 😘😘

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