NewVintageLady: My first crack at tulip sleeves!

My first crack at tulip sleeves!

The evening gown I'm working on is nearly finished. I have a lot of hand sewing to do so I've put it up for a bit until I work up the momentum to get her done.

In the mean time I've decided to go on and cut out a second dress from the pattern, slightly modified. I altered the bodice for a set in sleeve and took a shot at tulip sleeves for the first time. I saw a tutorial on how to do them a few months ago, and just tried it by memory. It's not a difficult sleeve to do, the trick is making sure that you overlap the top of the sleeve enough.

I measured out the sleeve against the arm opening in the new altered bodice and I suspect everything to fit just peachy.

On a lot of dust bowl dresses I see, and a lot of dresses from the 30s, there are all these fancy details that just make me melt. Large draping necklines, or asymmetrical fastenings or deco cuttings in skirts.

I love all of that. This time I wanted to take a crack at pleats lining the tulip sleeve.

I bought half a yard of powder blue cotton sateen after I couldn't find any white sateen. I later looked in my stash and saw I had some green sateen. I had to make a choice. I liked the green but it felt too 'hospital gown' to me.

I like the blue and bought it just for this dress but I was unsure if I bought enough. Because of the dip in the sleeve, and my loathing of showing stitches, I was going to fold over the fabric and pleat it. After pressing the sateen, I realized that would be thicker than my liking. I cut the fabric on the bias, overlocked them, pressed the fabric at 1/2" pleats and ran a center stitch to keep everything in place. I then ran a second center stitch and cut between the narrow margin and doubled my pleats.

I overlocked that stitched edge and ran another stitch to cement thee pleats. I then had to open the pleats so I could fold under the top and give the pleats a good clean stitching. I had no idea that would take an hour!

Now I was ready to add the pleated fabric to the sleeve. Success! With the left over pleats I'm going to trim the neckline.

I now realize I should have done half the pleats to the left and the other half to the right, and I will next time so they will mirror their opposite sleeves, but I do really like the look. I'm planning on assembling the bodice later today. This is going to be a great summer frock.