Sleeves On Saturday

When I first introduced the new series of Sleeves On Saturdays, I showed you this top. The top itself is just a basic T-shirt top. The sleeves are what make it interesting.

Nice drapes that fall from armhole seam.

Begin with your sleeve pattern.

Fold the sleeve in half. It's much easier to work with just half of the sleeve.

Draw in the lines where you would like your drapes to fall from. I forgot to add in the above picture that you should number your pieces. It's always helpful to number pieces because once they are cut apart, it can get a little confusing.

Draw a vertical guide line on your paper. Begin by placing the bottom portion of your sleeve on the line, number 1 in the picture above. Decide how deep you would like your drapes to be and place the next piece of your sleeve on the line, 2" to 3" is a good amount for the spread, but it is up to you. You can also decide if you would like the bottom drape to be deeper than the other drapes, you are the designer, it's up to you.

Now fold on the lines. You are basically putting the sleeve cap back together.

Once the pleats, or drapes have been folded, it's best to tape them in place before you begin to cut. Once eveything is taped down, cut out the sleeve cap. You can see in the above picture that you will not exactly follow the line of the original sleeve cap.

Now remove the tape and unfold your sleeve cap. By folding the cap and cutting while folded, we now have those nice little angles on the sleeve cap that tell us where we are to fold.

 Draw in the notches so you will know where to fold the pleats once you have cut out your fabric. You can see in the above photo that the cap of the sleeve has become quite elongated.

The sleeve is basically the same on the opposite side. If you are doing this out of a knit, the cap will be the same on both sides. If you are doing this sleeve from a woven fabric, you will want to fold the drapes on the portion of your sleeve that fits into the back of your garment and trace the original sleeve over the new sleeve. You will see that the back sleeve is a little larger than the front sleeve.

I hope you enjoy giving this sleeve a try. It's a wonderful sleeve that will make the simplest of tops stand out.