Adventures in sleeve drafting

[guenievre]

So I've never *truly* gotten a sleeve to fit to my satisfaction on a gothic fitted gown (1410 France, middle layer). I want skin tight...and while I've achieved that, I usually achieve it at the cost of some mobility (I'm a noblewoman, why should I need to lift my arms over my head... or forward more than a few inches... darn, I guess I do). So for Pennsic, I decided to make a new pattern.

Unfortunately, I can't drape a sleeve pattern on myself, for obvious reasons, and while I was confident enough about fitting a GFD to get Nick to make me a pattern (I have enough linen of the same kind to make several dresses off one fitting... woot), sleeves are a mystery to me. SO... thus I decided drafting the sleeve was necessary.

The catch? I don't own a drafting book (yet) and B&N just doesn't carry one for me to randomly pick up. And Pennsic is in 2 weeks! So I turned to my bookmark collection, and found this:
Modern Pattern Design, by Harriet Pepin. Now, obviously this is going to make a modern pattern, but it might be adjustable. Turning to the sleeve page, I drafted a pattern (after much cursing) for a basic sleeve toile.

I then used the instructions for modifying it to wrist control, rather than a dart, and snipped a bit here and there
until I had a back-seam sleeve muslin

Then I pinned it and slipped it on - RATS. It's too big. So I go back and look at the instructions - bingo! modern concepts of ease - 2 inches around the bicep! (Why I thought that was a good idea the first time, I don't know). OK, let's try this again from the top...well... it's smaller this time, so it should fit, but I can't for love nor money figure out how to make the dart go away... when I try, I get this THING that obviously isn't right...::sigh:: (before and after below)



Laurel intervention! luckily I snagged Keilyn away from doing her homework... discussion and sending-back-and-forth of pictures ensued. Aha! the dart works much like the elbow hinge Tasha has done work on - and I just figured out how to fit one of those last week. (THAT was definitely a eureka moment). Haven't got either of the dresses done yet, but I might get one at least sewn together tonight...

And thus you see the excitement that was my Friday night. Saturday and Sunday were much of the same, interspersed with a lot of WarCrack - I'm up to lvl 54, btw! woot for me - 'course, half my server is level 60's, or thereabout...but then, there's 10 zillion things to do AFTER you hit 60, so that's ok. Just no more XP grinding...

Comments

[melaniesuzanne.livejournal.com]

Most excellent. I love those a-ha! moments.

[lady-guenievre.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they're fabulous (entry edited to see pictures of just how much WIERDNESS I had going before the intervention...).

[siderea]

"elbow hinge"? Pray tell, do tell.

[lady-guenievre.livejournal.com]

It's not my theory, it's Tasha McGann's - she used to have a website, www.cottesimple.com where she explained it among other things, but she's since taken it down. Basically, though, it's a seam in a sleeve a elbow height that forces the sleeve to remain somewhat bent even when there's not an arm in the sleeve, thus making the elbow of a very-tightly-fitted (read: skin-tight in non-stretch fabric) sleeve have more mobility. The most famous example is the sleeve of the Charles de Blois pourpoint...

[millysdaughter.livejournal.com]

But then is it possible to straighten your arm without tearing the sleeve?

[lady-guenievre.livejournal.com]

Yes. Basically if you measure down the front of your arm (that is, shoulder to wrist over the inside of your elbow) with it straight and bent, it stays the same length. If you measure down the back of your arm, over the point of the elbow, it's longer if bent than straight. So if you build that length into the sleeve, you're set.
I'll try and post more pictures tonight or something.

[silverstah.livejournal.com]

WE need to have a sewing date so you can share your sleeve mojo. Because I'm clueless when it comes to this sort of thing. ;)

[lady-guenievre.livejournal.com]

Sounds fun, esp. as I took a really wonderful class @ Pennsic from tashamcgann re: this kind of sleeve. I'm still awful at fitting tight skeeves that are actually set at the top of the arm (ie GFD sleeves.

[silverstah.livejournal.com]

*nod* My grey wool GFD has sleeves - but I'm not happy with them, and they're just kinda sewn into the dress. There's no finishing work, etc, so I can easily take 'em out and redo them.

Ugh - I just realized that the fall is coming up. I hate the fall. I'm way too freakin' busy. We need to talk in, say, Nov/Dec. ;)

very nifty

[lady-richende.livejournal.com]

somehow I've never mastered the concept of pattern drafting. My brain just won't wrap itself around the geometry of making straight lines do curved things. Maybe that's why I hated geometry in high school. The other part of it the fact that my mother tried to *make* me learn how to sew as a teenager; I learned to hate sewing very quickly.

However, its very cool to watch other folks work through the process. Maybe one day I'll get motivated enough to try it myself. Someday when my tolerance for frustration is *much* higher ....