Understanding & Drafting Sleeve Patterns

Drafting sleeve patterns can seem a little daunting and there’s so many different methods out there that it’s sometimes hard to know where to start, right?

This mini video series that I’ve created aims to make the sleeve drafting world a little easier to understand and I wanted to analyse and compare the two most common drafting methods that I come across. 

Video 1 is all about some very important sleeve theory that we need to understand to draft  sleeve patterns correctly

Video 2 is a demonstartion of the drafting method taught by Winifred Aldrich in her book “Metric Pattern Cutting for Womenswear” 

Video 3 is a demonstration of the method that is most widely used in the industry and is really well explained by Dennic Chunman Lo in his book “Pattern Cutting”

Video 4 is a comparison of the two out comes from each drafting method. As well as comparison to my actual sleeve block pattern to see which is closer to the end product that we want.

Part 1: Understanding How Sleeve Patterns Work

You can’t start drafting sleeve patterns without knowing some pretty important theory about how they work and why things need to be a certain way. Essentially you need to know the rules before you break them!

This video covers:

• How the sleeve head relates to the bodice and armhole pattern

• Why we needs ease in a fitted sleeve head

• How a fitted sleeve should hang

• Why sleeve head height is so important and how it effects the way a sleeve hangs

• The 3 most important factors when drafting a sleeve head and how they are related

Part 2: How to Draft a Fitted Sleeve Pattern, Winifred Aldrich Method

Winifred Aldrich’s book “Metric Pattern Cutting for Womenswear” is a firm favourite for most UK pattern cutters.

This video covers her drafting method step by step while drafting a fitted sleeve pattern for my basic bodice block (which was drafted using her method too!)

If you don’t have the book that’s ok, just following with the equations that I’m reading aloud for you. Grab your calculator and lets get started!

Part 3: How to Draft a Fitted Sleeve Pattern, Dennic Chunman Lo Method

Dennic Chunman Lo was director of the Creative Pattern Cutting course at London College of Fashion and his impressive teaching experience really shows in his book “Pattern Cutting”. He explains things clearly and concisely and combines industry standards with traditional methods.

The method that he teaches in this book is a variation of the method that I come across most often in the industry and it gives a great result!

This video covers his drafting method step by step while drafting a fitted sleeve pattern for my basic bodice block (the very same one as in the previous video)

If you don’t have the book that’s ok, just follow along with the equations that I’m reading aloud for you. You will need a really firm grasp of the theory that I explain in video number one though!

Want to get your hands on a Pattern Shaper? Get yours here! 

Part 4: Comparison of Our Sleeve Patterns

Believe it or not our two sleeves are COMPLETELY different! 
This video aims to have a look at the sleeves, try to predict how they will fit and decide if there are any further tweaks that we can do before toiling to get a better fit. 

I also get my actual sleeve pattern from my bodice block that I know fits well and compare these first drafts to it to see which is closest to the finished product.

So which method should we use to draft sleeve patterns?

Well clearly Dennic’s method has given us MUCH better outcome so if you can get your head around that key sleeve theory then definitely use his method.
If you’re struggling with the theory and just want a finished sleeve that you can stitch in and fit on the body and go from there then use Winifred’s method.

Check out my full list of pros and cons below.

Winifred Aldrich Method

Pros

• You can draft a finished sleeve pattern without stopping to analyse in-between

• It’s easy to follow step by step drafting

Cons

• The draft is quite far from what we want it to be, it needs a lot of amending to get perfect

• If you don’t know how to fit and amend a sleeve then you’ll get stuck after drafting

• You need your block laid out as your original bodice block draft (bit of a problem if you’ve lost it or didn’t draft it from using Winifred’s method)

Dennic Chunman Lo Method

Pros

• Gives a result pretty close to our ideal, lovely fitting sleeve

• Quicker drafting method

• Gives you an opportunity to stop, evaluate and change your bicep and sleeve head height during drafting

• You don’t need to have your bodice pieces laid out in a specific way

Cons

• You need to stop, evaluate and change the bicep and sleeve head height during  drafting

• If you don’t fully understand the relationship between bicep+sleeve head height+sleeve head measurement then you won’t be able to get to the same end point as we achieved in my video