Sleeves On Saturdays

Starting next Tuesday I will be writing a post for the Sew News blog on collar drafting. Since I have the pattern, I thought I would also use it for our upcoming  Sleeves On Saturday posts as well.

The pattern is Butterick 5678.

It's a little difficult to see the style lines, but this sleeves is basically the straight sleeve from the pattern with style lines that run down the center of the sleeve and then balloon into the fullness at the lower area of the sleeve.

In this picture you can get a better idea of the style lines. There is a seam line(style line)down the center of the sleeve and seam lines on either side of the center seam.

A typical sleeve with gathered fullness at the cuff will have fullness that radiates from the top of the sleeve. I wanted a sleeve that has the same fit through the upper portion of the sleeve with fullness only in the lower portion of the sleeve.

Begin with the sleeve from the pattern. The sleeve has a tuck and the tab opening drawn in, just ignore that. Draw in a vertical line in the middle of the sleeve. This is the grainline, but will become a style line as well.

 Draw a horizontal line in the elbow area. This is just a little lower than the middle of the sleeve.

Draw in the style lines. My lines are 2" on either side of the center line at the top of the sleeve. You can see that I angled them in a bit and then they flare towards the lower area of the sleeve.

Be sure to number your pieces!!

Cut the 4 pieces of the sleeve apart. In the above picture, you can see that I have added angled lines to each piece. The lines angle out to 1 1/2" away from the original line at the wrist.

The final patterns. Be sure to add seam allowance to the new style lines. The original pattern from the envelope has compensated for the cuff, so the pattern will have an area toward the back of the sleeve at the wrist that is a little longer and an area toward the from of the sleeve at the wrist that is a little shorter. In the above picture you can see a line that I have drawn in that is red. This line is the new opening for the tab. I make my tabs 3 1/2" long.

If you would like for the sleeve to be fuller at the wrist, add more than the 1 1/2" that I added.
Be sure to come back by on Tuesday as you will be able to see the finished shirt and the collar. Actually, this coming week, there will be 3 collars. Wow, a banner week!!
Have a wonderful weekend!