Hmm… seeming success is a bit thwarted…
While laying awake at an ungodly hour, I had debated the sleeve shape. The more I doubted having enough sari fabric for a hoop skirt, the more I felt that a narrow sleeve would look better, more balanced. So when I got out of bed, I poked through my costume books and patterns. A slight bell-shaped sleeve was my pick, and I found that McCall’s 4697 had the right shape.
First, I lined the bodice, no problem. Lookin’ good. Then I cut out the sleeve lining and pinned it to the bodice — yep, it worked great. Laid it out on the fabric and toyed with different directions of the sari pattern until I figured out what I wanted. Cut, sew, bag-line.
Bodice with sleeve, in-progress
Fine, still no problem (well, I did accidentally stay-stitch the sleeve and lining *before* I’d turned it right side out and then had to unpick that stitching; but there’s always some minor screw-up like that).
I even hand-basted one finished sleeve into the jacket to see how it looked (I never baste!). Tried it on Lola, and she looked awesome. So I sewed both sleeves in for real and tacked the bodice lining to cover the raw edges of the sleeves. Very tidy.
Next I futzed around with the collar. Wasn’t sure about adding an actual collar or leaving just the edge, especially since I’ll be wearing that fabulous necklace. Decided to go ahead and finish the edge, and I can always add in a collar later. Painstakingly folded the lining and fabric edges and hand-sewed those suckers together (remember, I hate hand-sewing).
Now it was all done but fastenings!
But then I tried it on me corseted. A bit snug in the waist, dunno how that happened, but nothing major. The real problem, however, is the way the sleeves poke out in the back. I pleated the sleeve head in with the pleats right behind the shoulder seam. This kinda makes the sleeves pokey.
Not noticeable on the dressform, for some reason, but obvious on me. Hrmm… I think the fix is fairly straight-forward — pull those pleats in a smidge so less of the sleeve head sticks out. But, ugh!, that means unpicking the lining and the sleeve itself (I hate seam-ripping).
Dunno if it’s noticeable to anyone but me. Probably is. I should fix it. *sigh*