Master Sewing and Design Certification Program

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Saturday, March 2, 2013

Sleeves On Saturdays

This week's sleeve is not as over the top as last week's sleeve was. Those stripes were rather wild and crazy!!! But what a fun sleeve, don't you think?! Although this week's sleeve is a more basic sleeve, it's a wonderful one to have in your arsenal of design possibilities. The design lends itself well to color blocking. We'll revisit this sleeve in the future for other design possibilities. To develop this sleeve I used my basic fitted t-shirt pattern. This sleeve does not need to be made from a knit fabric, but the top is so easy to wear, so a knit makes it all the easier.
The Stylized Dolman Sleeve
Begin with your front and back bodice and match them at the shoulders.
 Draw a guide line out from the shoulder line. This is for the sleeve.
 Match the center of the sleeve to the guide line.
Measure over 1 3/4" to 2" from the shoulder edge on the shoulder line. Draw a line straight down from this point. Measure up 2" from the waist. Draw an angled line from the side seam up to meet the line that was drawn down from the shoulder.
 From the angled line on the bodice, draw a slightly curved line to the elbow area of the sleeve.
Since a curved line in easier to sew than a sharp angle, I curved my lines as you see below. The curved line at the shoulder is a must though as we do not want a sharp point on the shoulder line.
Before we separate the pattern pieces, be sure to add notches to the new seam lines so that you will be able to match your pattern pieces once they are cut apart. You can see the notches on the new seam lines in the picture below.
 The final pattern pieces with grainlines. Be sure to add seam allowances to your pattern pieces!!!
As I said, this is a very easy style to wear, extremely comfortable. If you give it a try, I think you'll love it too!
This will make 27 sleeves to date for this series. I'm having a blast and I hope you are enjoying the series as well. If you would like to see all the sleeves that we have done, you can find them on my Pinterest board here,  http://pinterest.com/sewbussted/sleeves-on-saturdays/. We're past the half way mark!

8 comments:

  1. Ironic - I just traced off a pattern yesterday from a shirt I brought from Coldwater Creek with just this sleeve. I love the shirt and wanted another. I'm sure this will help me if there is something off on my tracing. Thanks so much for sharing so many things with us!

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  2. Great series. Love the sleeve fabric. TFS

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  3. I am grateful for the sleeves series. I particularly like this style and it provides a more elegant option for 'scrap busting'than Marcy Tilton patchwork t-shirts.

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  4. I really like this one - very wearable (for a conservative person like me).

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  5. This is nice the colour and style suits you, gosh look at all your snow you look warm in your top..

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  6. Wow! Twenty-seven sleeves. That's great, Rhonda. I know I've said it before, but you are a GEM. This addition looks so easy and so stylish. You look great. It's about time you put out a few books on pattern draping as well as your line of patterns. This one would be a best seller. ;-) I think everyone can wear this style.

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  7. I like this too and am actually wearing a dolman sleeve top right now! Thanks for the clear pics - I shall keep this post in my bookmarks for future reference reminding.

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