Sleeves On Saturdays

The Guiding Light Lantern Sleeve
Before we get started, I just want to let you all know that I will be posting yesterday's Fabulous Free Pattern tomorrow, Sunday. I decided to wait as so many of you commented on how you would like to see me in the French jacket (pictures of me in the jacket will come after the fashion show which is May 6th). So rather than posting this week's piece on the form, I thought I would put it on and take some shots.
Today's sleeve is a very graceful sleeve. It looks fabulous on a jacket, dress or t-shirt, and with just a little imagination, there are a multitude of things you can do with it.

It hangs from the top of the arm, angels out and then tapers back to the wrist. A word to the wise, please do a muslin of your basic sleeve before drafting this sleeve as you need to know exactly where you want your sleeve to end at your wrist.

Start with your basic sleeve. Make sure you have made a muslin so you know where you want the sleeve to end as there is no hem on this sleeve. Measure your fist. Make a fist with you hand and measure around it. This measurement will give you the amount of room you will need to put your hand through the end of the sleeve.

Using that fist measurement, taper the sleeve. My fist measurement is 9", so I measured over 4 1/2" on either side of the center of my sleeve.

Once the sleeve has been tapered, decided where you would like the seam for your lantern to be. Draw a line at this point.

At the wrist, divide the sleeve into 8 equal segments. Now draw lines in to the top of your sleeve. The lines will be angled as you see above. Be sure to number you segments so if any piece is separated, you will know where it belongs.

Before you separate the bottom from the top, draw in notches so is will be easier to reconnect the top of your sleeve to the bottom. Cut the bottom portion away from the top of the sleeve and put aside for now.

 Beginning at the bottom of the sleeve, cut on the drawn in lines. Draw a line on your paper. the 4th and 5th segment will be spread equally on either side of the line. Now spread the remaining pieces. I spread the back more than the front. It gives a more graceful look to the sleeve. For my sleeve, I spread the back pieces 2" apart, the middle sections were spread 1 1/2" apart and the front sections were spread 1" apart.

In the above picture you can see that the back flairs out more than the front.

In the above picture, you can see a dashed line. In the center of the back portion of your sleeve, come down 1/2". Taper this back to the side seam and back to the center of the sleeve.  

The final pattern. Make sure to transfer all notches as well as the grainline. Also, be sure to add seam allowance to the bottom of the sleeve. I added 1/4". With only a 1/4" seam, I will not have to trim the seam once it has been sewn.

Now for the bottom portion of the sleeve. Cut on the lines from the top to the wrist but not through the wrist. Spread your sections exactly as you did the top part of your sleeve. If you don't, the 2 pieces will never go back together.

 The final pattern. Again, be sure and transfer all notches and the grainline. Add seam allowance to the top of the curve as well as the wrist. You will need to cut 4 of these for your garment. Two for the outside and two for the inside facing.

The sleeve is very easy to do. The trick is to do the muslin before you begin the drafting so the sleeve will end exactly where you would like on your wrist.
How about that skirt?!!!! Would you like to see a tutorial on how to draft the skirt? I will do this later this summer, I promise. It is a rather dramatic skirt.
Hope you're having a lovely weekend.
Rhonda