My goal with the sleeves was to make them as puffy as possible. I started with the actual sleeve pattern from the tunic, and made it almost twice as wide and a bit taller (basically figure 2 below).
everything you could ever want to know about drafting sleeve patterns, from vintagesewing.info
This is the part where I realized I didn’t quite have enough fabric (who knew 3 yards wouldn’t be enough…). So I had to cut the sleeves in two pieces, with a seam running down the outer arm. Fortunately it’s hardly noticeable with all the puff.
To make the sleeve puff, I gathered the top edge of the sleeve, and sewed it into the dress. Then I made a wide hem at the bottom, leaving an inch or two open at the underarm seam. I threaded elastic through the hem and tied it off at approximately the length to fit comfortably around my arm.
puffed sleeve! yay!
I’m really happy with how the puffed sleeves turned out – I think they’re my favorite part of the whole dress.
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