Rhonda's Creative Life: Sleeves On Saturday

Hey! it's Saturday and I'm actually getting the post up on the right day. Might be a trend!!!!

Hope you are all having a lovely start to your weekend. It's beautiful here in Chicago and as soon as I get this post up, I'm out to my garden to do a little digging.

I had a lot of fun creating this sleeve and I'm really looking forward to getting the body of the jacket made. The sleeve actually stands out away from the shoulder and then tapers back to the wrist. I used the sleeve pattern from Butterick 5678 as my block. I'm calling this sleeve

The Terraced Sleeve

To draft the sleeve, begin with a straight sleeve pattern.

Measure down from the top of the sleeve cap 2 1/2" and place a mark. From that mark measure down 3" and place another mark.

Draw in a curved line making sure that the first line is the same distance on either side of the center of the sleeve at the cap.

Before separating the pattern pieces, place notches so that it will be easy to match them up when sewing.

Draw in the spreading lines and be sure to number them.

Cut the pattern pieces apart.

On the top portion of the sleeve cap, cut from the style line to the cap being careful not to cut through the cap.
For the middle section, cut from the top style line to the next style line once again being careful not to cut through the line.
Draw a vertical line on your paper. Match the center of both pattern pieces to this line and begin spreading. I spread 1/2" between each section. Sections 5 and 6 are in the middle of the pattern pieces. There is a 1/4" spread on either side of the center line which totals 1/2". Be sure to add seam allowance before cutting the pieces out.

Next, take the center section and the lower portion of the sleeve and divide into sections as you see below. Because the cap is a smaller area, the slash lines were closer together. The middle section(now that it has been spread) and the lower portion of the sleeve is a larger area so the slash lines should be spaced a little farther apart. Be sure to number the slash lines.

Once again, draw a vertical line on your paper and place the center of both pattern pieces on that line. Spread each section equally. I spread each section 1/2"

The final patterns.

So that's it! The sleeve takes a little time, but it is so easy to do. Like I said in the beginning, I can't wait to get the body of the jacket finished.