The Perfect Sleeve - Part 1

How to draw the sleeve (the easiest possible way)

• That sleeve is part of our beginners level module. It comes just after the enlargement.

• That sleeve is my own method. I did a combination of different methods taking care of the armhole, biceps and armhole depth. The crown goes up and down until final biceps value is satisfactory.

THERE IS NO BLOCK FOR SLEEVE : the sleeve has to been drafted form scratch for each garment.

• The sleeve belongs to the garment, not the body. Thats why we don't have a block (because a block is your body)

• It depends on the armhole which you choose and is different for each garment. We adapt the crown high to fit the biceps.

Start by measuring the armhole front and back on your pattern

Measure the front and back armhole length separately

Measure the depth as shown.

Take a new sheet of paper

Draw a vertical line in the middle

It is the center of the sleeve

Mark the crown. It is 80 % of the depth of armhole (measured earlier on the pattern).

That line is blue

Draw an horizontal line.

Make sure it is perpendicular to the center line.

It is the underarm line.

Draw a line from the top center line to the underarm line.

the left is the back and that new line is equal to the back armhole measurement (measurement taken earlier on the pattern)

Do the same for the front.

Note that the front and the back are not equal. (if they are, it is pure coincidence)

Draw two parrallele lines

at the end of the diagonal lines

Finish the frame.

by drawing two horizontal lines, one at the top and one at the bottom

We need two more lines

Half way vertically on the back side :

that's the elbow line (very important for fitted sleeve with a dart)

the other line is the bend line

It is half way on the front side

OUR frame is ready now to draw our sleeve.

The end in the next post The Perfect Sleeve - Part 2

In the meantime, watch the video

the mandarin collar - How to draft it

How to draw a mandarin collar with variations

To draft the mandarin collar, you will need to draw the neckline. 

Move away from the block as we need ease for the collar's seam allowance.

Then, measure the neckline front and neckline back.

First draw a rectangle

The length is the neckline back + the neckline front.

The height is the collar stand (maybe 2, 3 or 4 cm)

Notch between the back and front which is the shoulder seam position

Raise the front part

Lift the front part from the shoulder notch.

For the moment, raise 1/10 of the rectangle (half neckline). 

Make sure that the length remains the same.

COLLAR 1

You can start the slope before the shoulder notche : It makes a smoother curve.

that collar is pretty up right.

It can be used as the STAND for your shirt collar.

The collar stands up right,

it doesn't lean on the neck.

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COLLAR 2 : Increase the raise at centre front

Change the raise angle.

Preciously it was 1/10, now let's make it more.

The collar is not so upright, 

It lean on the neck

For that variation, it is recommended that you widen the neckline at start, to leave more room between the collar base and the neck.

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COLLAR 3 : Raise it even more

Raise it more, 5 cm or more

the collar leans more along the neck.

The collar will become flat at the front when the raised curve will be equal to the curve neckline.

The back will always be straight up because there is not curve there.

Variation on a Mandarin collar

VIDEO TUTO

Enlarging your block

 

Following of the post "where to start"

I uploaded some basic bodice blocks (standart size) in Pdf so you can start styling your first pattern.

Free Downloads from our FB group

Free Downloads from my website. 

Enlarging your block is the first step.

• It allows you to "think" about the ease.
• It allows you to plan better your developement and pattern strategy.
• It allows you to know and understand your master block better. The master block is not only your second skin, it is as well your first tool and your need to know it very very very well.
• Enlargements are done at the side seams at underarm, wait and hip level.
• The center front and center remain where they are. The center front line will change according to the front opening, it has nothing to do with the ease we are adding.

Tutorial on where to put the new side lines in order to give more ease for a jacket, shirt, coat......

 

Those drawings show how to make an enlargement on a bodice block to obtain a close fitted jacket.

Those enlargement values are minimal for jacket. (see the video to see how much enlargement value I choose for that exercise)

Enlargement come first, before dart manipulation, before styling, before anything.

The shoulder enlargement is not compulsory. It depends on the style and fashion. The shoulder enlargement was much bigger in the 80's. Nowadays, it tends to be inexistant : the armhole tends to be closer to the neck and the crown of the sleeve tends to be higher so the top of the sleeve follow the curve edge of the shoulder.

Take the blocks back and front side seam facing each other (it makes things easier that way)

Start by the underarm. see the little horizontal extention.

Now go down vertically to find the new underarm point

Make an extention horizontally at the waist

And at the hips

And extend the shoulder line too

Now we have 4 new points (underarm, waist, hips and shoulder). That gives us new lines.

Prepare to trace the new armhole (see those little right angle line?)

See how easy it is to trace those new curves now. They have to start on a right angle line from the side seam and shoulder seam

Watch the video for more details

How and where to start

That post is on how to start when you want to make a garment.

In the class, I ask the beginners to do "enlargements". It is the first exercise. Redraw a pattern on the top of the block (using different color pen helps) with added value on the side seams.

The aim is 

• To start from our master block for every garment
• So we can have a more sensitive approach to the hardest thing in Garment drafting : the ease
• By starting from the master block, we always have our body dimention (our block is our "second skin") and the pattern in sight and we are able to give enough ease from the beginning.
• We have full control on the value we add. It will be different if we do a shirt, a jacket or a coat, a fitted jacket might need an enlargement of 3 cm underarm and a loose coat might need 10 to 15 cm.

Some methods (not mentioning them) will use different master blocks for the different garment with ease included. That leaves very little control on the amount of ease to add and the body dimention are forgotten when you start drafting (as we start our pattern from an already enlarged block).

I don't recommend students to start pattern making with those methods but I encourage them to use one and only master block with is equal to the body measurements and we can call second skin.

More precision on how to enlarge in the next post.