Sleeves On Saturdays

Yes, I know it's not Saturday. The week has been a little crazy, but I am still in charge of my mind...somewhat anyway!! A few weeks ago I received an email from Tania asking for a little help,

"I've been scouring the internet for months for a decent tutorial on a style of sleeve that I need in sewing a traditional dress (Philippines). I have a wedding to attend in September and I'm aiming at sewing a traditional dress to wear to said event. Would you be so kind and help me, or at least give me an idea, on how to achieve the sleeves as in the pictures below?"

Love the dog! 

As many of you can probably guess, anyone who has seen my shoe collection usually refers to me as Imelda, so when I saw Tania's request, in honor of my namesake, I had to take on the challenge. Tania told me that I could wait until tomorrow to post the sleeve, but I would really like to get her started on her dress, so I'm flipping Friday and Saturday this week. Tomorrow I'll post this week's Fabulous Free Pattern Friday edition.
The sleeve on the green dress has a tucked cap and the sleeve on the white dress is gathered. Since the gathering is a little simpler to do, our sleeve today will be gathered.
The Imelda Sleeve

Begin with your sleeve pattern.

Determine the length of your sleeve. From all the pictures I saw of this sleeve, it is usually worn a little above the elbow to just above the elbow.

This is a very straight sleeve. Most sleeves are tapered somewhat, so you will want to straighten your sleeve. Do this by squaring a line off the line you drew in for the length of the sleeve.

Now we have a straight sleeve that is the length the we would like. Draw in a bicep line. This will be used as a guideline when we begin to spread the sleeve for the fullness.

 Square a line off the bicep line at the notches.

Now divide the center area of the sleeve. I divided my sleeve into 4 equal sections on either side of the center of the sleeve. Be sure and number all of your sections!!! Now cut out the sleeve and cut each section apart.

Draw a horizontal guideline on a new piece of paper.

I included this picture to show what can happen when you don't number your pieces. So please number your pieces so you don't end up with a mess.

I did a 1" spread between each of my sections. This gave a fairly full sleeve. Use the guideline that you drew on the paper to line up the sections of the sleeve.

Now we need to add the height to the sleeve. The rule is, and of course rules are meant to be broken, but this is a good rule of thumb, for every 3" that you spread, raise the cap 1". I spread my sleeve 9" so I raised the cap 3". Now with Imelda, more was always better, i.e. the shoes!!, so this is a matter of choice. Make a muslin of the sleeve at this point and if you would like the height to be more, add more.

The final pattern.

My muslin sleeve.

And a side view.

As you can see from the above picture, this is a sleeve that holds its shape. In order for it to do so, we need to add some structure to the inside of the sleeve. I would also suggest that you add an underlining to the sleeve by cutting the sleeve out of your fashion fabric and cutting another sleeve out of silk organza. If your fabric is sheer as in the sleeve above, the organza can act as your lining, but if your fashion fabric is not sheer, I would cut a layer of fashion fabric, a layer of silk organza and a layer of lining.
For the interior structure, 

 measure from one notch to the other.

Draw and oblong piece that is the length measured between your notches. The width will be the amount that you raised your cap, plus seam allowance. I raised my cap 3", so my interior structure piece will be 3" wide.

This can be made out of silk organza or netting. Netting will give more structure. Fold the piece in half and sew in gathering stitches.

 Attach this to the cap of your sleeve.

 Now the cap of the sleeve will truly hold its shape.

I looked through pictures on the internet, I saw that they would actually press the sleeve to accentuate the cap.
I told Tania that this was not a sleeve that I would have thought to do, so I am very happy that she asked. It was a lot of fun to put it together for her. Send pictures Tania when you finish your dress. I know we would all love to see it! Good Luck!!