Sleeves

We have had various stages of sleeve toiles and pattern editing for the sleeve. Due to the complexity if the dress the sleeves always became an after thought so in these last stages we have a concentration on the sleeves, making sure they get done, fitting it correctly to the actress.

Second Pattern Edit

Third Pattern Edit

Above shows the various versions of pattern editing, with lots of copying and drawing over sleeves pattern to create the new version.

The final pattern edit

This was done to lift the sleeve seam under the arm closer to the arm hole, and made the size of the pattern slight wider, this will make it easier for the actress to fit their arms inside the sleeves.

With these many edits over the weeks of construction we had our final pattern.

With our sleeve pattern finalised we could begin cutting out pattern out of fabric, a lining fabric and the final striped fabric.

The striped and lining fabric flat tacked together to keep them in shape.

The lining of the sleeve fabric

The outside of the sleeves

The next step was to begin constructing the sleeves, sewing up the dart that was on the sleeve and them sewing the side seam together.

An inside and outside view of the constructed sleeve.

During the pattern editing stages for the sleeve pattern we added lots of ease, and so this will need to be gathered in to the correct size before it can be inserted in to the sleeve.

Gathering on the head of the sleeves

Before it would be sewn to the bodice, we had to add a frill to the bottom of the sleeve.

This called for another pattern to be drafted.

This is the original frill pattern, copied from Janet Arnold's patterns of fashion, Volume 1.

Then like any good pattern that we have see on this process it is edited out, we wanted to make it a large frill, and so to get the same volume as seen on Mrs Bennet, we cut through the pattern and stretched it out to double the circumference of the sleeve cuff.

This is the slashed and stretched out pattern, nearly all 80 cm of it.

Then like all great pattern it was tested in calico to see how it would look on the bottom of the sleeves and make sure the seam on the frill and the sleeve matched up.

With the calico finalised and the seams matching up it was on to cutting the sleeve ruff out of the striped fabric and a white underneath fabric, it was a different material to the one used for lining the sleeve, as this new fabric was good for gathering and a lot lighter, so would give the ruffles on the sleeve a floating look.

Then we sewed the seam on the ruffles, and with a long loose stitch gather up the ruffles, separate of each other to give more flounce to the sleeves ruffle.

 These beautiful ruffles were then sewn to the sleeves cuffs, right side to right side, 4 layers of fabric on top of each other. I was really worried about pushing the ruffles out, but all seamed to go well.

The gathering on the ruffles still in place, having sewn them in to the cuff 

I surprised myself at how well I managed to keep to the seam allowance line, that all of the stitched seemed to be exactly along that line 

A view of the cuff against the gathering of the ruffles 

The Sleeve, so very proud of it.

Then the final step with the sleeve constructed and the ruffle attached, the sleeve needed to be inserted in to the bodice.

 Here you can see the pins used to hold the sleeve in place before it is stitched

Here you can see the detail of the gathering inside the sleeve

With that the sleeves were made and in the bodice, ready for the next stage.