Simplicity 4714 (1943): Part 2

This poor pattern was in terrible shape: Worn, badly-cut, and crumpled. I'll definitely be making a copy.

This pathetic wad ironed out. . .


. . . into a circular ruffle piece.

Who would have guessed?

Alas, the person who owned the pattern before I did cut the short-sleeved version but failed to save the lower half of the sleeve pattern. I thought this wouldn't be a problem--it's a fairly plain everyday dress, after all--until I looked at the pattern diagram and realized it was supposed to be a close--fitting sleeve with a darted elbow!

One option was to just substitute a wider, straight sleeve. That would have been easy, but it would be a bit of a let-down not to at least approximate the original, right?

This is where having an unreasonably large collection of patterns comes in handy. One of them is bound to have a similar sleeve.

Sure enough, Simplicity 3789 (1941) to the rescue! This pattern is only two years earlier and has a very similar fitted sleeve with elbow darts. It also had a darted sleeve cap, which I don't need, but it doesn't matter since I still have the upper sleeve for 4714.

I traced 3789's sleeve onto new paper, and then lined up 4714's upper sleeve and grafted on its sleeve cap.

You can just about see the two sleeve caps (to the left this time; I turned the pattern around): The outer one is 3789's more elaborate, darted, cap, and the inner one is 4714's.

(And now, incidentally, I have short, three-quarter, and long sleeve options for this dress. It didn't have long sleeves before.)

Then I cut the whole thing out and used it to cut the sleeve pieces:

(Yes, the fabric is pieced. I have no class.)


. . . and then I sewed up a sleeve!

And it totally worked!

Pardon the atrocious color in this--I had to cut down the shadows so that the elbow darts would show, but there they are, and they're right where they're supposed to be.

I rule.