Princess Puffed Sleeves

Few garment styles say "Little Girl" as well as 

Puffed Sleeves. 
 And being a sewist who loves to sew girly dresses,
I make a lot of puffed sleeves.

Today, I finished up this little princess costume 

for a local client. 

It is a birthday present for her granddaughter.

And I must say, she will be quite the princess

in this gown. 

The client brought me the pattern 

and all the fabric a few days ago 

and I really thought it would not be a 

big deal to make this dress.
I mean, I have made a gazillion princess

costumes and dresses over the years.

So it could not take me that much time, right?

Really???

But this pattern, Butterick BP186 dated 2005,

has to take the cake as the most poorly written

pattern I have ever used. 

The pieces fit together fine, but the instructions

were ATROCIOUS!!!!! 

Instructions did not match up with illustrations.

Entire portions of the instructions were missing.

And even the amount and type of interfacing for the hat

was nowhere to be found.

Fortunately, I was able to figure it out. 

But there were some things that I felt needed to be added to this

pattern to make it look better, be more functional

and feel more 

"Princessy"  to a young child playing dress-up.

So, back to those "Puffed Sleeves".

The silvery fabric for these sleeves is very thin.

My concern was that after a few wearings, 

they would just deflate. 

The answer?

Sleeve heads!

And since the pathetic pattern did not call for them, 

I fell back on my favorite method.

And since you are all so nice, I will share it with you.

I had already sewn the sleeves into the bodice when I decided to do this,

so I will show you how to make the sleeve heads and add them to the sleeve.

Grab you sleeve pattern piece and some fusible interfacing.

Fold the interfacing and lay the pattern piece on top.

Use the pattern markings that indicate where you gather 

to help you know where to lay the pattern on the fold.

Make sure you have transferred these markings to you

sleeves and bodice so that you can match up the edges of the sleeve heads 

and the sleeves.

Then cut along the pattern piece.

When you unpin the pattern piece and open up the folded piece of interfacing,

your piece should look like this.

Cut two of these, one for each sleeve.

Fold the piece back and press it so that the sides fuse together.

Your sleeve heads will look like this now.

Now run two rows of gathering stitches along the rounded

edges of the sleeve heads.

These rows of gathering stitches will follow the curve of the sleeve too.

Now, take your bodice where you have already sewn 

the sleeves into the shoulder opening.

I apologize for the how the silver fabric looks. 

It bleaches out with the flash.

Pin your sleeve heads right along the seam line of the sleeve.

Pull up the gathering stitches so that you can match up the

edges of the sleeve head with the transferred dots on your sleeve seam. 

Then stitch the sleeve head into the sleeve at the shoulder, 

using the same seam allowance as the sleeve.

Then zigzag and trim or serge the seam allowance 

to control the gathers and reduce bulk.

When you put the sleeve right side out,

you should see a nice, supported "PUFF"!

And this puff will not sag. 

So, sleeve heads are easy to add and really make a difference with puffed sleeves. 

Another change I made to the pattern was that 

I only sewed the sequins and lace on the outside

of the dress. 

The original pattern had the sequins actually sewed into 

the seam allowance. 

And that can make for an itchy dress!

So I sewed the sequins on AFTER the dress

was completed and there were a few layers

of lining and fabric between those sequins and the young princess.

Another change was the subtraction of the zipper

and the addition of Velcro dots. 

The client suggested this change so that 

her granddaughter could put the dress on herself 

instead of needing her Mommy to zip her up.

The plus signs on the back of the bodice

show where the Velcro is stitched down.

Even though this dress is for someone else, I still

had to have Ahnalin model it.

My little princess actually prefers pink so 

I had no problem convincing her that this dress was going to another girl.

And just because I had to show you all

how things REALLY look when I sew,

this was the kitchen table while I was sewing.

Yep. 

It was a MESS!

Underneath the princess gown items was a pair of jeans

that I am hemming for a client, the pink batiste

sleeves Ahnalin's Easter dress that I am still smocking,

and some muslins! 

MESS!

My goal is to get some more Yaya's Apron work done

this weekend and then clean my sewing area. 

And this time I MEAN IT!!

(Anybody want a peanut?)

Sorry, random "Princess Bride" quotes pop out at the most inopportune times!

Oh, and I wanted to thank you all for your prayers and kind
words for my India.

She is still really ill and has not made it to school
all week.

On Wednesday, we made our trip to U.C. Davis medical Center
for a follow-up appt. with the doctor in the immunology clinic.

The last time we went, I was very frustrated because the doctor
did not take me seriously and her response to me was,
"India just may be a girl who gets sick a lot."

Was that the best she could do????

So, after I demanded some titer testing
and blood work for antibodies,
the doctor then ordered 2 blood tests.

Well, flash forward to our appt on Wednesday.

The results were interesting and now,
low and behold,
the doc is taking this seriously!!

You see, for some reason India
is missing quite a few antibodies that she is supposed to have.

So, more tests were ordered and we are praying we get to the
bottom of this immunological issue.

In the meantime, I am just still asking for healing
prayers for my sweet girl.

She has missed so much school and we are getting grief over that.


I am so grateful for your prayers.


Oh, and in other news,
over a week ago,
Ahnalin decided to take the "Radio Flyer" for
a drive down our very steep driveway.

Yeah.

She crashed and burned and
really banged up her feet and legs.

And I probably should have taken her to the doctor,
but to be honest, she was walking fine
and is a pretty tough little broad.

So we just cleaned her up and put on
bandages and thought that would be that.

However, now, a week later, they are still not
healing. They break open and bleed and look really nasty.

So, both of my girls are headed back to the doc office again in the morning.

I am tired of this!!!


(Not sure if I should mention this, but one of the times Ahnalin's feet broke open again the other day was because she was climbing up a rock wall on the side of the house and she scraped the scabs off. Gag!! She never quits!!!)

Happy Sewing my friends!