Sleeves On Saturdays

The Epaulet Sleeve

The epaulet sleeve is a wonderful sleeve that offers lots of design possibilities. The center shoulder seam is eliminated and the sleeve and the shoulder portion of the jacket, dress or blouse become one pattern. In the above picture you see the front of the sleeve.

 In this picture you see the back of the sleeve. (And an ink smudge, sorry about that)

The above picture shows how the sleeve now extends into the shoulder.  

To draft this sleeve, begin by trimming the seam allowances away from your pattern. It could get a little confusing if you leave the seam allowances on the pattern. Match the shoulder seams as you see above.

 Extend the shoulder seam.

Match the center grain line of your sleeve to the extended line from the shoulder. The top of the sleeve should just touch the seam line at the shoulder as you see above. Do not overlap the two as it will cause the shoulder to cave in and be a little tight against the shoulder.

Now draw in the lines of the epaulet extension. At the armseye, the lines should be no more than 1 1/2" away from the original shoulder line. The lines will look a little nicer is you taper them a bit toward the neckline as you see above. 

If your sleeve does not meet exactly with the bodice, redraw the curved line as you see above. 

Before you start to cut the pattern pieces apart, be sure to add notches as you see above.

Cut the front and back bodice away from the sleeve. Find the midpoint of the shoulder. Measure down 1/8" at the midpoint and draw in a slightly curved line. This will allow the shoulder to lay a little nicer.

The final pattern for the sleeve. Be sure to add seam allowance!!!

As you can see in this picture, the corner should be very crisp. Be sure to mark the corner

and clip the corner.

Once you know how to do some of the drafting, sleeve variations are really quite easy and they make your outfits really pop. 

I hope that you are enjoying Sleeves On Saturdays. I am, except, I'll confess, this was not the sleeve that I wanted to show you today. I am working on a piece that I would like to send in for a contest. ARGH!!!!!!! The sleeve has pleats that radiate from the underarm seam and I'm just not quite getting it. I will and when I do, I'll share it with you.

Hope you're having a lovely weekend.

Rhonda