I have the next sleeve tutorial for you already. There are a lot of ways you can treat sleeves, so i thought I'd keep throwing stuff at you. Along with the basic sleeve, covered in my last post, ruffle sleeves are super easy. They don't require a lot of careful fitting of the sleeve cap to the armhole, which is the trickiest part of sewing sleeves on a small scale.
For this I used the pattern pieces for Dress with a Bodice and Gathered Skirt:
- Bodice Front (cut two, the bodice is lined)
- Bodice Back, cut 4
- Skirt
- Ruffle sleeve, cut two, there is a form to get the pattern piece at the end of this post
1. Sew front to back pieces together at the shoulder seams for both the bodice and the lining.
2. Sew bodices together starting at the bottom corner of the back, up and around the neck and down the other side of the back. DO NOT sew the armholes together as you would for a sleeveless dress with a lined bodice.
3. Fold sleeve ruffles in half and press.
4. Sew two rows of gathering stitches along the curved edge of each sleeve. Gathering stitches are explained in this lesson.
5. Pull gathering threads until sleeve edge is the same length as armhole edge.
6. Pin sleeve to ONE layer of the bodice fabric making sure you have right sides together. The sleeve has two right sides, but the bodice only has one. If you look closely in the photo below, the lining of the bodice is lifted up.
7. Sew sleeve in place to the bodice but not the lining.
8. Now you can add the lining. Just flip it down and pin it in place. You will then have a bodice, sleeve, bodice lining, sandwich. You are ready to sew these three layers together. It helps to sew with the bodice side up, because you have the stitch line from sewing the sleeve to the bodice to follow.
9. Next there is a tiny side seam.
A. Turn bodice right side out and press.
B. Locate the tiny side seams at the base of each armhole.
C. Pin the side seam of the bodice to the side seam of the armhole, matching the bases of the armholes.
D. Stitch.
10. Press bodice and sew skirt on as in the Bodice and Gathered Skirt tutorial.
11. Hem and and trim and send pics!
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