Sleeves On Saturdays

I'm calling this sleeve the Par 3 Sleeve because there are 3 darts in the cap and because the shirt looks so much like a golf shirt. I don't golf, but I really like wearing cute outfits in the summer. Please forgive me, the shirt is not quite finished, I still need to put in the buttonholes and sew on the buttons. You can see the argyle print peaking out below the collar. There is going to be a skirt made out of that fabric and I want a covered belt to match the shirt.

I wanted an alternative to a puffy gathered cap. The darts add fullness to the sleeve without the puffiness of a gathered sleeve. This sleeve would be wonderful in a jacket with some stabilizer in the cap to hold out the darts. We will revisit this sleeve in the future by doing a jacket and adding more darts to the cap.

A view from the side.

A view from above.

Begin with a basic short sleeve pattern.

Draw a line down the center and 2 angled lines on either side of center, 2 1/2" away from the center line at the top of the cap and 1" away from the center line at the bottom of the sleeve.

Now raise the cap of the sleeve 1 1/2" . If you did not raise the cap, the sleeve would be too tight against the arm because of the room that the darts take up.

Draw a line on your paper. Cut on each angled line from the cap to the bottom of the sleeve but not through the bottom. The center slashed line should be spread 1"on either side of the line and the 2 side slashed lines should be spread 2".

In the above picture you see dots that are exactly in the middle of the slashed areas. These dots should be placed 2 1/2" down from the top of the sleeve. This marks the apex of your dart.

Now fold the darts. In order to get a crisp fold, I use the edge of a table.

 Now all darts have been folded. The center dart should be folded so that the fullness is toward the back of the sleeve. The darts on either side should be folded so the fullness is away from the center.

Now cut on the line that you established when you raised the sleeve cap.

Your final pattern. Notice that the bottom of the sleeve has a curved line. You can draw in a straight line, just note that this will add to the height of the sleeve cap and make the shoulder appear very square.

To finish off the bottom of my sleeve, I piped it with the contrasting fabric.  

So there you have it. I highly recommend that if you decide to give this sleeve a try to make a muslin of the sleeve prior to cutting it out of your fashion fabric. This will give you the opportunity to adjust the darts if need be.
Good luck if you decide to give it a try.
Hope you are all having a lovely weekend. On Tuesday I'll show you something I did today!!