Challenge 7:: Faros tunic: drafting the sleeve 2.0 + muslin

We have had some sick kids around here... first one, than the other one... but they are getting better and today I had a chance to finish that other sleeve...

What other sleeve? Well, in the last post, I made a sleeve, a tighter sleeve (large sleeve cap). It fit very well, but it wasn't really the look that I wanted. So I tried drafting a different sleeve, with a short sleeve cap - my guess is that this kind of a sleeve will be closer to my sketch of the Faros tunic: shorter, wider, sitting father from the bodice.

To start, draw two orthogonal lines (intersecting at A) and trace the arm openings for the front and back patterns (details in the previous post). Then, mark points 1 and 2 and find point B half way between 1 and 2. Measure distance from A to B and mark point C half way between A and B. A to C is now the sleeve cap height. 

A sleeve with the small sleeve cap is wider (often used for loose fitting shirts) and therefore does not need any ease. Therefore, the length of the sleeve cap curve needs to be about the same length as the arm opening curve. So, the next step is to draw a line from C to the horizontal line - the length of the line C3 is BAL (back arm curve length) - 0.5 cm because there will be no ease (in the previous post, the length was BAL + 1 cm because we needed to add ease).

Same in the front - C4 line length is FAL (front arm curve length) - 0.5 cm. (for details on this go to previous post)

Next, we need to draw how much the sleeve curve will go above these lines we just drew. So, mark 1/4 of FAL and 1/4 BAL from C on C4 and C3 lines respectively. At those points draw a perpendicular line 1 cm long. This is where the sleeve curve will be at the highest above C3 and C4.

Now, you can draw the curve: in the back it will cross the C3 line at about 1/3 of C3 length, measured from point 3. It is quite shallow below C3 line, maybe 0.3 cm.

In the front, point E is half way between C and 4. The sleeve curve will cross C4 line about 2 cm below E. The bottom part of the curve here as a little deeper than in the back, maybe 0.5 - 0.7 cm.

The last thing - add the length: in this case I added 3 cm - same as with the first sleeve. One last thing to do here is to mark alignment points between front/back patterns and the sleeve pattern. I will not repeat this method here - see previous post for details. I actually did not have to redraw the points on the back/front patterns, because they are the same. All I had to do is transfer them to the sleeve pattern. The only difference between this and the first sleeve is that here there is no ease, so curve length AE = 4E1, ED = E1D1, DC = D1C in the front, and AF = 3F1, FB = F1B1 and BC = B1C in the back. When you think about it... you don't really need the alignment marks, but in case the curves are not exactly the same, you will know how to match the sleeve to the bodice.

Just for comparison... you can see that the sleeve cap is quite shorter on the second sleeve. And you can see how the much wider the second sleeve is. Now we'll see how it fits...

Fits very well. Nothing more to say, really.

What is interesting though, is the comparison of the two sleeves. You can see that the tight sleeve (on the left) seems longer (even though we added 3 cm in both cases, below the "bust point" or the widest part of the sleeve cap). Also, the drape is quite obviously different - while the tight sleeve falls close to the body, the wide one (on the right) sticks out more (giving the arm more room).

I am going to go with sleeve 2.0... it just fits the design better. We'll see the finished top next...

Previous Challenge 7 posts:

Challenge 7:: Faros tunic
Challenge 7:: Faros tunic: drafting everything except the sleeve + muslin

Challenge 7:: Faros tunic: drafting the sleeve 1.0 + muslin

Challenge 7:: Faros tunic: drafting the sleeve 1.0 + muslin

***Warning... very long post... should break in into a few smaller ones... but it's too late... literally it's 12:02 am and there is no way...***

I've done it. The sleeve. And I am going to do another one. Ha!

OK, let's start from the beginning. I am not an expert, not even close. I have just started learning and analyzing the Bunka method, but I will try to make this as clear as possible, and explain everything I learned about sleeves.

Now, this intro might have scared you. When I started reading about sleeves last week, it scared me too. It seemed too complex... The Bunka books are good, but sometimes the descriptions of the illustrations are not so good. Sometimes you have to rely on illustrations alone.

When you start reading the instructions it will look complicated, but stay with me, and you will see at the end it is not so bad. I have done one sleeve, and I am planning to do another version for this top, just to compare them... once you've done it, it is not so bad. Trust me.

OK, so... so the first thing that might be intimidating is... there is no basic block for the sleeve. None. Not in the way the basic bodice is used to create a pattern. The sleeve is based on the shape and the circumference (the length of the curve) of the arm opening.

My first thought was - does that mean that I have to draw a different sleeve for each design I make? That could be problematic... but that's not completely true. Arm opening might not be different in all designs. Just as an example, if I had made all my sleeveless designs with sleeves - they would all use the same basic sleeve, because I have not really change the shape and thus the measurement of the curve of the arm opening.

From my limited experience with this method, it seems that most designs have either an unmodified arm opening (same as the bodice), a slightly wider one (moving part of all of the shoulder dart and part of the bust dart into arm opening), and a deeper one (involving the previous modifications plus deepening the arm opening below the arm). So really, if you used these three "basic" designs, you would really use tree "basic" sleeves. Then you could modify those "basic" sleeves to get different sleeve designs - flared sleeve, tucked sleeve, tulip sleeve, etc.

OK, but what is a "basic" sleeve? Well, this is where it gets a bit complicated. The shape and fit of the sleeve is based on the height of the sleeve cap - or the distance between the widest part of the sleeve (at the bust line) and the top of the cap of the sleeve (this will be clearer when I show you the sketches). So, if you want the tight fitting sleeve you will choose a high sleeve cap (which gives you narrower sleeve), but if you want a shirt sleeve, loose fitting, you will choose a short sleeve cap (which giver you a wide sleeve).

Yes, complicated, but when you think about it... it gives you flexibility to design any sleeve you want... to fit any bodice design (specifically arm opening) you want.

OK, so here is how it goes...

Since the sleeve is based on the shape of the arm opening, start by tracing the arm opening from your front and back patterns (note - these are patterns that do not include seam allowances). Draw two perpendicular lines - the horizontal line is the bust line, the vertical is the side seam extended up. Align your patterns along the sideseam, just at the intersection with the bust line and trace arm opening..

Find points 1 and 2 by drawing horizontal lines from tops of the front and back arm openings to the center vertical line. Mark A at the bottom of the arm opening. Then find B, which is half way between 1 and 2. Measure distance between A and B. Find point C at 4/5 of the length of AB. AC is now the height of the sleeve cap. Now, according to the Bunka books, the tight sleeve, the one with the highest sleeve cap, is calculated as 5/6 of AB length. On the other hand, the widest sleeve I found, the shirt sleeve cap height is 1/3 of AB. So the one I chose is on a tighter side. 

Now, point D. Take your sloper and/or front pattern, and find the lower leg of the bust dart (see above). The intersection of the leg of the dart and the arm opening is D. Draw a  horizontal line through D.

Next, we need to measure the length of the curves of the front and back arm opening. For that you can use your measuring tape and carefully curve it along the line, or use a piece of thread, "trace" is along the curve of the arm opening and then measure the length of the thread.In my case the back arm curve length (BAL) was 22.5 cm, and the front arm curve length (FAL) was 21.5 cm.

Now, draw a line from C to the bust line (horizontal line through A), BAL + 1 cm long. In my case that was 23.5 cm. You will need to move your ruler around a bit to make a line of that length from C intersect the bust line. Mark point 3 (see pic).

Do the same for the front... well, almost the same. Here the line from C to bust line is only FAL long - in my case 21.5 cm. What are these lines. These lines determine two things. First, distance between points 3 and 4 is the width of the sleeve. Second, the length you choose for these lines we drew (C to 3 and C to 4) determine how much ease there will be in the sleeve. If you are drawing a tight sleeve, you will need more ease than for a loose fitting sleeve (where you might have no ease at all - in which case these lines might even be shorter than BAL and FAL respectively).

One more thing here before we go on. You can see here how the width of the sleeve depends on the height of the sleeve cap. If C is higher, AC is longer, which will make C3 and C4 lines "closer" together and thus distance from 3 to 4 smaller = tighter sleeve. If AC is shorter - shorter sleeve cap, this will make points 3 and 4 farther apart, which means the sleeve width will be bigger = looser sleeve.

Now, let's move on to drawing the curve of the sleeve cap. On line C4, measure 1/4 of FAL from C, and then draw 1.5 cm long line perpendicular to C4. This is where the curve will go up from the C4 line.

Similarly, on the back, measure 1/4 of BAL from C and draw a 1.5 cm long line perpendicular to C3 line.

These 1.5 cm lines... I took this value from a sleeve I was using as a template for my design (from the Blouses and Dresses Bunka book). This determines the ease you have in your sleeve - the longer these lines, the more ease you have. I think that the largest value for these I've seen is for the tightest sleeve (which needs most ease) which was 1.8 - 2.0 cm.

Then, back on the front, draw a vertical line touching the front arm opening at the widest point. Intersection of that line with the bust line is A1. Measure distance from A to A1 and then draw another vertical line from bust line up to the curve at 2/3 of AA1 distance to the right of A. This part of the arm curve will be traced onto the sleeve curve at point 4.

Also, mark D1 as intersection of C4 and a horizontal line from D. Find a point 1 cm up from D1. This is where the sleeve curve crosses C4 line. Or in other words, up from this point sleeve curve will be above C4 line, below this point, it will be below C4 line.

Repeat the same for the back of the arm opening (see pic above). One difference is that the crossing point will be 1 cm BELOW D2 point.

As I mentioned, the curves between A and A1, and A and A2 on the arm opening will be traced onto the sleeve curve. The easiest is to find the same points on your pattern. Lay the pattern on your drawing, and mark the points on the patterns.

Now, take the back pattern, turn it over and align the top of the shoulder seam with point 3 and trace up along the pattern to the mark you made in previous step. Similarly, take the front, turn it over, align with point 4 and trace up to the mark. You now have the start of the sleeve curve...

One note... below, you will find steps on how to find alignment markings for the bodice patterns and sleeve pattern. However, if you do not want to do that, you could get away with using point C as the "midpoint" of the sleeve - this point will align with the shoulder sleeve. Also, the ends of the curves you just traced with corresponding markings on the front and back patterns can also be used for alignment - these curves will match exactly and should have no ease added to them.

Now, you are finally ready to draw the sleeve cap curve. 

In the back, the curve will go through C, above C3 line touching that 1.5 cm long line, then cross the C3 line 1 cm below D2 and finally connect to the curve you traced from the back pattern.

In the front... the curve will go through C, curve above C4 line touching  that 1.5 cm long line, then cross the C4 line 1 cm above D1 and then connect to the curve you traced from the front pattern (these points have been marked red in the pic above)

Finally, add the length of the sleeve. In this case, I want a short sleeve, so I chose (guessed) 3 cm from the bust line. Straight down, no fanciness here. 

The sleeve is done!!! Just for fun I wanted to find out how much ease I have in this sleeve. So I measured the length of the sleeve cap curve from C to 3  and C to 4. Turns out that I have 1.3 cm ease in the front (difference between the front sleeve cap length and front arm opening curve length) and 2 cm ease in the back. Honestly, this does not mean much to me, I just wanted to know...

As I mentioned above, you can stop now, and for alignment (between the sleeve and the front/back patterns) you can use point C and the two points that we marked on the front/back patterns when we traced the curves from the front/back to the sleeve.

Below I will show you a different method, also from the Blouses and Dresses Bunka book, that uses 5 alignment points.

First, mark alignment points on the arm opening (on the front/back patterns).

Measure distance A to 1 and then find points 2 and 3 (see pic above) such that distance A to 2 is same as 2 to 3 and also 3 to 1, which is 1/3 of A to 1. Then draw a horizontal line 1 cm above point 3. Where this line intersects the arm opening curve, mark points B and D.

Point E is on the front arm opening, at 1/2 of distance from A to 2 vertically up from A. Finally, point F is on the back arm opening, half way between A and B.

Overlay your front/back patterns and transfer points D, E F and B. Point C will align with shoulder seam.

Now the corresponding points on the sleeve...

Point E1 is on the front of the sleeve, such that the length of the front arm opening curve from A to E is the same as the curve form 4 to E1 on the sleeve cap.

For point D1... measure E to D on arm opening and add 0.3 cm. That will be the length from E1 to D1. Why 0.3 cm... Well, to tell you the truth I don't know. I worked off an example from the Blouses and Dresses Bunka book, and this seems to be one way of doing it. Basically the idea is to distribute some of the ease between these segments on the curve. If you remember I calculated ease before - on the front it is 1.3 cm. So if I have 0.3 cm in the E1D1 segment, the rest, 1 cm will be between points D1 and C. That does not seem too bad. I want ease, but not gathers...

In the back, the total ease calculated was 2 cm. So this will be distributed in all three segments. First measure A to F and add 0.3 cm to get the distance between 3 and F1. F1 to B1 is the distance between F and B plus 0.7 cm. The remaining 1 cm ease will be included between B1 and C.

Phew! Done. Here is the sleeve.

And here is what it looks like basted...

As I was basting the sleeve to the bodice... I was sKeptical. Very. It was not until I put it up on the dress form that I was... relieved. And happy, ecstatic really. It worked. Oh, my. It worked. Now imagine me dancing around fire singing "I made sleeve!"

Just look at it. I am soo proud!

But, yes there is a but, unfortunately... I have to try one more thing before I finish this. I want to draft a loose fitting sleeve. And see how it fits and what drape it will have and how it will change (if?) the design. I like this one, of course, but it seems a bit tight, a bit "conservative" for the lack of a better word.

Will be back with sleeve 2.0

Previous Challenge 7 posts:

Challenge 7:: Faros tunic
Challenge 7:: Faros tunic: drafting everything except the sleeve + muslin

Week 6:: Kioko blouse: drafting and muslin - Part 1

Remember how I said in the last post I wasn't feeling the sleeves? Well, with all the problems I had with these kimono sleeves, I would have been better of just setting in some regular sleeves. Yes, I had issues. Many. I started drafting this top on Tuesday, but scraped everything, including all the pics I too of the process. It just didn't look good. I tried drawing the full kimono sleeves and then shortening them. Did not work. I tried doing the French sleeve and then lengthening. Nope. I even looked at some kimono tops in the Mrs Style magazines I have. If you've never seen one - these magazines basically include very detailed drawings of how to modify your slopers to get to a particular design. I tried doing one, but since my design was different, it did not work. 

Or maybe my problem was overthinking it. I tend to do that. But, anyway, I tossed everything away and started from scratch. And here is what I came up with.

First, a (very) rough sketch of what I want my top to look like. Excuse my poor illustration skills - I can draw a neck opening or any kind of other curve freehand, but when it comes to drawing a sketch like this - it comes out not so god. Oh, and it seems that pencil does not scan well. Ah, you live and learn. So... deep V neck, yoke, high waist cut and some flare below. And some gathers at the shoulder, under the yoke.

Step 1: Move shoulder dart. In this case it is actually easier to start with the back. It will be easier to draw the sleeve. You will get a better idea when I move to the front. In the back, we need to move the shoulder dart into the arm opening. Why? I don't want it at the shoulder, or the waist - the flare will come under the high waist seam. And the kimono sleeves like this need to be wider anyway or they will bunch up too much under arm. So take your back sloper, mark points 1 and 2 and draw a horizontal line from dart tip to arm opening. Mark point 3. and trace counterclockwise around sloper from 1 all the way around to point 3. Then, with a pin in the top if the dart, rotate sloper counterclockwise until point 2 on sloper matches 1 on paper. Mark point new position for 3. Trace around from point 1 to point 3. 

Step 2: Extend shoulder seam. Because we closed the shoulder dart, the shoulder seam is not straight anymore. Draw in a new shoulder seam and extend it out 14.5 cm. This is how much you want your sleeve to extend from the shoulder. This is largely arbitrary, but you cannot make it too small, not for this kind of a sleeve anyway, because you might have a problem when matching the front part. So. let's go with 14.5.

Step 3: Modify side seam. This top does not have closures, so it will have to be pulled over head. I still don;t want it to be too wide, so I will take in the same way I did in week 4 and 5 because I liked how those two draped on the sides. This might not work here, or might have to be changed, but it is a strating point. So, take 0.5 cm of the side seam, then measure 10.5 cm down he seam and make a notch 1 cm long. Connect as in picture for the new side seam (in red). Also make a horizontal line at the notch - this is where the seam for the high waist will be. But don't cut yet! That's for later.

Step 4: Finish the sleeve. At the 14.5 mark on the shoulder line, draw a line perpendicular to the shoulder line and extend below the start of the side seam. Then measure 4 cm down the shoulder seam. We are deepening the sleeve opening some more. Draw a line perpendicular to original side seam toward the line you drew from the shoulder. And you have the sleeve. Finish by connecting the shoulder seam and the tip of the arm opening by a curve to finish side seam. Measure distance "a" which you might need when drafting the front sleeve. Also measure distance "b" - the amount opened at the arm when the dart was moved - you will need this too for the front. In my case this was 2 cm. Cut the pattern out.

Step 5: Move dart to waist. So we are moving on to the front. Start by marking points 1 ad 2 - the dart legs. Then find point 3 which lies "b" distance from 1, or the top leg of the dart. Why? Well, since we opened the back arm by "b" we need to match this at the front too. The rest of the dart will be moved to the waist. Why the waist when I have gathers at the shoulder you might ask. Because I decided to do a yoke. So I want to cut the yoke first and then move the dart back to the shoulder. And it will be easier to draw the sleeve. The shoulder dart would be distracting. Also, mark point 4 at waistline, straight down from the tip of the dart. Trace clockwise, from point 1 to point 4. Then, with the pin in the tip of the dart, rotate the sloper clockwise until point two on sloper matched point 3 on paper. Trace around the sloper from 3 down and around to point 4.

This is what you should have at this point. Now on to the sleeve.

Step 6: Modify side seam. Same as for the back.

Step 7: Draw in the side seam curve. For the front we will start with the bottom of the sleeve, not the top. So, take your back and overlay over your drawing of the front so far. match the side seams from waistline to the notch (see pic) and then trace the curve. This is one place I got hung up before. Side seams have to match. Sometimes the curves are not the same (just think of princess seams) but the length has to be the same. Or you will not be able to sew them up.  In this case it is a simple back to front matching so I believe it is safe to go with the same curve. 

Step 8: Front shoulder seam. OK, this is where I had the most problems. If you simply extend the front shoulder line by 14.5 cm (has to match the back, right?) this is what you get: the arm opening is much smaller on the front than on the back. See the difference? Now, the openings are rarely the same, but this seemed wrong to me. Also, if you intended to draw arm opening on the right - it would have to be curved a lot!

But then I thought of something. Remember how we had to redraw the shoulder line on the back. Well, by doing that we effectively raised the shoulder line a little bit - we changed the slope of it. See the pic below. The ruler shows you where the shoulder seem would have been if we did not change it. See the arrow - that's 2 cm more!

So, it would be only right to match this on the front. So redraw the shoulder seam by raising it 2 cm (at the and of the original shoulder line) and then connect that point to the neck, extend by 14.5 cm and draw the arm opening. It looks much better now, doesn't it?

Step 9: Draw new neckline. I opted for a deep V. Measure 20 cm down the center line, make a notch. Draw a line (dashed) from the neck down to notch. Then measure that line, and make another notch, 1cm wide, 1/3 of the length down from the neck. Draw a new smooth neckline from the neck, to the notch, all the way down to the middle line. This way you get a nicer looking V, then just the straight line.

At this point I stopped drafting, even though we are not anyway near being finished, and made up a muslin. I wanted to make sure I am on the right path. It seemed to me that once I cut this pattern up more, it might be harder to troubleshoot, if things are not looking well. And I was worried about those sleeves...

But they looked good. A bit too long, especially if I will be adding a strip on the edge, but no obvious problems or weird draping. The neck will need some tightening. And the back looks good, I just forgot to take a pic.

So what next? Back to the drawing table. Tighten the neck, shorten sleeves, make the yoke and the bottom, flared part of the pattern. Muslin again.

Previous Week 6 posts:
Week 6:: Kioko blouse