Adventures in Sewing: Poofy Sleeves

On the tag it is listed as 'White'. I think I know why it was in the thrift store.

I found a pink blouse in a thrift store awhile back with poofy sleeves done like a bubble skirt. And I fell in love. I bought this blue cotton awhile back (same shopping trip lol) because it was cute and in a fabric store I only get to every couple six months though I had no project in mind for it (which is bad, then it sits around not doing anything) and about a week ago I realized I wanted a lolita-ish shirt dress made out of that fabric with poofy sleeves like that pink blouse. But as I've never done it before I figured I'd make a white blouse from the left over eyelet from my eyelet bloomers and mob cap. It turned out well so I thought I would share a quick tutorial.

Please excuse my mad paint skillz, forgot to take a pic of this part.

Cut out the regular sleeve piece, this will go on the inside so it is needed. Now for the outer part which is the pooftastic part, fold your fabric in half, then fold your sleeve part piece in half and place it a few inches from the fabric fold. Cut it out!

And it only took me 2 hours to get to this point! *dies*

Now sew down the seam and press it. Yes press it. Pressing is the key to good sewing.

This feels so easy!

Slide the inside/smaller part into the larger/outer part so it peeks out just a smidge then pin the together once at the seams. This will give you a guide for how to pleat the outer piece.

Another hour later...

Now start pleating. I do one pleat on one side and then mirror it on the other until they meet at the top/polar from the seam. You'll also want to pleat starting an inch or two away from the seam and make them deeper/bigger pleats as you go. This will help reduce the mass of poof under your arm which makes things more comfortable. Once you've got it nice and slightly tight around the inside piece take out the pin holding the two seams together and slide out the inside piece.

Nothing more zen then the hum of the sewin- holy shit it shot a needle at me! Time to clean the bobbin casing...

Now sew down the pleats. I know you're supposed to do the pins at a 90o angle but I'm used to doing them exactly where my needle needs to go so I know where to sew. Do whichever works for you.

You can already see the poof. It shouldn't look as poofy as mine at this stage since I put waaay too much poof in.

And slide the inner sleeve in and pin it in place.

Tralalala sewin- Goddamn it quit spitting needles at me! I just cleaned your bobbin casing like you wanted!

Sew it together.

I purposely cut and pleated the sleeve so it would have an eyelet border. That's why it took so long.

It'll look like this.

Then flip it inside out, repeat the pleating process on the other end then you can sew that sucker in like a normal sleeve.

Hopefully your shirt is not this short. That's what happens when working with scraps.

And that's (part of) how you get yourself a shirt like this. I used two layers of eyelet in the main body of the shirt to keep a similar opaqueness to the sleeves. And I used the slight bit of the business end of the eyelet I had left to make one of the layers of the double collar.

Also, I have an OotD. Today is a picture release of a new toy and in hopes of it being my favorite character (50% chance) I made a coord based off the basic design of the character.

My Corvette love bleeds into Transformers...

Outfit

Bow: Claire's

Pearls: Glass

Blouse: Offbrand

JSK: Converse One Star

Belt: Offbrand

Leggings: Offbrand

Boots: Offbrand (Kohl's)

Gloves: Offbrand (and lined with rabbit fur, so lovely)

I'm also realizing that my Chanel Dragon lip lacquer may not have been the closest match for the triumphal red I was going for. Whoops.

Edit: He was the one revealed today! Evil universe and therefore red but yay. :3