Sleeves On Saturdays

I feel like I'm cheating a bit today as this sleeve takes no extra drafting, but it's a fun treatment especially if you would like to use 2 contrasting fabrics.

Below, you can get a hint of the slashes on the sleeves. I began with a typical funnel neck top with set in sleeves.

I'm calling this sleeve treatment

The Skeleton Sleeve

as the tied slashes look like a vertebrae to me!!

This sleeve must be made from a knit fabric. Be sure that your fabric will not run as the slashes will not have a finished edge. The peach knit is a bamboo and the blue is a tencel. Neither of these fabrics will run when pulled.

Sorry about the pictures, I had to take my own today. In the picture below, you can see how the slashes look on the arm. They really don't pull, but open nicely so that you can see the fabric underneath.

To do the sleeve, you will want your first slash to start about 3" from the sleeve cap.

Find the center of your sleeve. Measure down 3" from the top of the cap. The slashes are 2" wide and are spaced 1" apart.

Cut a strip of your knit 1/2" wide. Sew the strip to the center of the sleeve cap.

Without pulling the strip, you don't want the sleeve to buckle between the slashes, tie the strip to the center of the slashed area.

 Once you get to the hem of your sleeve, sew the strip in place.

That's it, a very easy little treatment that looks interesting and nicely shows off the contrasting fabric underneath. 

I really like this top and I wear it quite a bit. Since there are 2 fabrics, it's warmer than my other tops, a real plus for me.

This treatment can be done on other areas of your garment, but as I said above, just be sure that the fabric doesn't run when pulled.