Sleeves On Saturdays

Today's sleeve is a flirty little sleeve that continues into a yoke. I really should have done my sample in contrasting fabrics so that you could see  the yoke a little better, but I think you'll be able to easily understand it once you take a look at the drafting instructions.

Look closely at the picture below and you can see the point where the yoke meets the underarm seam of the sleeve. There is no shoulder seam in this sleeve.

I decided to make a tie collar for my top and leave the back yoke open at center back. A peek of the back is always a good thing.

 A close up of the yoke.

Believe it or not, the drafting of this sleeve requires no sleeve. Woo Hoo!
The Yoking Butterflies Sleeve 

Begin with the front bodice. For all of the sleeve drafts, please begin with a sloper without seam allowances. Add seam allowances once you have finished drafting. It will be much easier and less confusing.

 Extend the shoulder 12".

Draw a vertical line that is parallel to center front and make sure that it rests exactly on the line of the armhole as you see above.

 Now, fold on that line.

 Take a tracing wheel and trace on the side seam of the bodice and the armpit.

 Open the paper and mark in where you traced.

 Draw a curved line from the extended shoulder line to the traced line as you see above. The line that was traced from the side seam of the bodice should be 6" long if you extended the shoulder 12". For a shorter sleeve, extend less on the shoulder and less on the side seam which is now the underarm seam of the sleeve.

 Draw in the yoke line. Be sure that the yoke line begins exactly at the point of the traced armpit line.

The above picture shows that the yoke line can be any style line that you choose, just be sure that it begins at the point of the traced armpit.

The final patterns. Be sure to add seam allowance! I'm only showing final patterns for the front as you would do exactly the same to the back. The grainlines will be the same as the original pattern.
When you sew the yoke to the bodice, match the armpit seams and sew them first. Then clip at the point where the armpit seam meets the yoke seam and sew the yoke to the bodice. If you are interested, I would be happy to do another post on this sleeve with a contrasting yoke and bodice and detailed pictures of how to sew the bodice to the yoke and sleeve. Just leave a comment and let me know.

This style is perfect for spring and summer, but the sleeve can also be made into a long sleeve version, perfect for winter.
Go yoke a butterfly!
Hope you are having a lovely start to your weekend. It's cold and rather rainy here in Chicago. Oh well, spring is coming!