Hokuto Sumeragi - Mad Hatter #45

sleeves before slashing

Started sewing the slashed sleeves. The sleeves have five pieces: the outer layer, in the cherry red grosgrain fabric, with the slashes on the top part of the sleeve, a lining for the slashes in the burgundy satin, an inner puffy short sleeve in the burgundy satin, a tulle ruffle, that will be inserted between the puffy satin upper sleeve and the lining, to give it a natural volume, and, finally, a very normal looking satin lining. There will also be decorative button straps at the cuffs, but those will be made later.

I started by pinning the outer part of the sleeve to the slashes lining, redrew the slash lines, that will be cut later, with a pencil on the outer fabric's inner side, and, started sewing around the slash line, from the top. To have even spacing and a bit of seam allowance, I made a gauge out of cardboard with two measurements: 2,5 mm and 5 mm. First I used the 2,5 mm measurement for the first seam, placing the top of the gauge on the pencil line, and sew. On the bottom, I turned around and now used the 5 mm measurement to sew back up the second seam, making long U shapes.

+ Marking the slashes and sewing them with the more stable top fabric facing me, makes it easier to sew two nice straight paralell lines. The thinner pencil line and the gauge also help a lot.
- At first I only used the already fading chalk lines that marked the slashes, but I had to redraw them with a pencil, because It was very hard to sew a straight line. With the pencil line and the gauge, everything went quicker and smoother.

THE CUNNING PLAN
Finish sewing all the slashes on both sleeves and fray check at least the satin, if not both fabrics, before turning them around. After turning, tack the bottom of the satin lining to the main fabric.