Designer Interpretations - Pinstripe Inspired - "The Sleeves"

My next dress is one that I'm copying twice over.  I saw this dress on The Selfish Seamstress' blog.  Elaine made her own interpretation of a Heidi Merrick dress and even though she is petite and thin, I thought that this dress would work for me.  Because we all know that a sheath dress...is a sheath dress...is a sheath dress!  Here's the original:

picture courtesy of The Selfish Seamstress blog

Again it's the details that drew me to the dress...this time it's the sleeves and the bow tie.  I have once again started with my TNT dress pattern and two pieces of fabric pulled from the fabric closet.

This post is about the sleeves because to me if the sleeves work, then the dress works.  So the first thing I needed to do was alter the sleeve pattern for my TNT dress pattern. 

I had a basic idea of how to go about doing this but I knew that there were instructions and diagrams in the book, "Make it Your Own Personalizing Patterns for Creative Design" by Lori Bottoms & Ronda Chaney.  This book is out of print.  However, it is one of my treasured resources because it was one of the first books that taught me that I could alter a pattern successfully and without fear.

Chapter Four - Savvy Sleeves is where I found the information I needed to alter my pattern piece.  I made a copy of the original sleeve pattern piece and then following the instructions for enlarging a sleeve, I placed three slits in the pattern.  One in the center front and one on either side of the center slit. Then I added 2" between each slice, so that my altered pattern piece looks like this:

Since I only had a small piece of the lightweight silk available, I didn't want to ruin it so I made a sample sleeve from a piece of silk charmeuse that was comparable in weight to the silk chosen for this project...

...then I inserted into the shell of my pea green linen dress...a dress that's hanging waiting to be completed btw...but made from the same TNT dress pattern...

I like the fullness that this added to the sleeve...the detail that I believe is necessary to make this design work.  Now that I'm sure the sleeve pattern will work, I've moved onto making the dress and the tie.

...more later!