25/8/2019 7 easy sleeve pattern alterations - The Shapes of Fabric

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TUTORIAL

7 easy sleeve pattern alterations

BY SHAPESOFFABRIC - 0 3 / 1 1 / 2 0 1 8

It’s back to basics! This post is all about sleeve pattern alterations. And I have a feeling this
is going to become a series of blog-posts, as there are so many different sleeve-styles I
want to show you.

Here’s a group of sleeve-styles that all have the same starting point. If you want to
exercise, all you need is a basic sleeve pattern. Divide it like this into 6 slices. In case
you’re using a half-scale pattern or smaller, you could then just take copies of it. This will
save you time and you can try all the sleeve alterations here and your own versions, too.

edit: I added a pdf you can download. It’s a half-scale basic sleeve pattern, which should t
quite perfectly on one A4 sized paper.

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General idea

The idea behind all these sleeve patterns is adding volume with the slash and spread -
method. The nal look of the sleeve depends on where and how much you added the
volume. Just cut the lines open and add as little or as much volume as you want. You don’t
have to cut open all the lines and you can add different amounts of volume. Just keep it
symmetrical.

In case of the sleeves that have extra puff at the shoulder you need to intervene with the
armscye of the bodice-pattern as well: take off a couple of cm from the shoulder-line.
Otherwise your nal garment will have really wide shoulders!

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In case of the gathered sleeves, measure the original width of the sleeve-hem before
modifying so that you know how much to gather.

Puffed sleeves

In the rst example I added volume only at the top.

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And here is the classic puff-sleeve with volume on both sides to gather.

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In both cases I lifted the sleeve-cap, so I’d have to modify the bodice-pattern, too. Lifting
the sleeve-cap creates more volume.

Flared sleeve

Choose the length of the sleeve and then slash and spread. I made a short version.

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If you want to try a different effect, gather the volume instead of leaving it free.

Bell sleeve

This is kind of the same as the one above, but with much less volume added.

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Trumpet sleeve

Here’s quite a subtle version of the trumpet sleeve. This has just one vertical cut in the
middle. At the elbow-level there are these horizontal cuts that allow you to make the
trumpet-shape. Try opening it a bit more, if you want a more pronounced shape.
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Bishop sleeves
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I made two different versions of this sleeve to illustrate how you can achieve a different
result, depending on how much volume you add.

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Peasant sleeve
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This one is the same as the bishop-sleeve, but it has volume at the sleeve-cap as well. So I
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took this opportunity to show you how you can also add different amount of volume at the
top and at the bottom.

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So there you have 7 different easy to draft sleeve-styles, each with the possibility to
modify the look even further just by changing the amount of volume.

Which one is your favorite?

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BASICS PAT T E R N D R A F T I N G S L E E V E PAT T E R N SLEEVES

AUTHOR

shapesoffabric

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2 COMMENTS

Becky  R E P LY

10 MONTHS AGO

How come all of the illustrations have cut, but the results I see on your mannequin
have no sign of joining or so

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shapesoffabric Post Author  R E P LY

10 MONTHS AGO

It’s because you do the cuts only on the paper pattern to alter the shape of
the future sleeve. Once the pattern has a desired shape, you cut the fabric
directly in that shape. that’s why there are no extra seams on the nal
sleeve. I hope this makes sense. 🙂

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