Sleeve pattern usually causes chills in some seamstresses and pattern makers, doesn't it? It is very common to hear complaints and questions such as: "how to make a good mango" or "what is the secret of drawing a beautiful mango" or even "how to make a perfect armhole". I've heard these complaints for a long time and this was also a complaint of mine.
I only managed to understand more about sleeve modeling when I started to study the technique of three-dimensional modeling or draping. From then on everything started to make sense and I understood how to make a good sleeve, with a good fit.
Sleeve construction is a fundamental part of modeling, whether flat or three-dimensional. They can be integrated into the body mold or can be recessed into the armholes. And the cool thing is that even without any other decorative element in the piece, the sleeves can stand out in a creation.
The sleeves integrated to the body are the kimono sleeves, bat sleeve, Japanese sleeve and the sleeves embedded in the armholes are the raglan sleeve, puff sleeve, for example.
The draping helps us to visualize the sleeve while we are making the pattern, and with that we can see the fit and we can also correct and adapt it according to the design we want, as is the case with the puff sleeve.
When we build the puff sleeve mold in three-dimensional modeling, we can visualize the volume and fit we want, while if we are going to do the same process in flat modeling, this is not possible, because we need to make the mold starting from the base mold and then, we add paper to get the volume, then we cut the fabric, sew and only then can we see the result. Isn't it tiring?
See this sleeve worked in the photo? A sleeve like this with draping is only possible to do on a mannequin and the best thing is that while we are doing it, we can add the pleats according to personal taste, at the time of creation!
Another sleeve model that I really like is the raglan sleeve, it looks beautiful made in draping and we get very creative and interesting variations when making the armhole.
Another advantage that I notice when we make the sleeve in the draping is the understanding of the lines. When we trace the pattern in flat modeling, those lines don't make much sense, but when we make the mold of the sleeve on the mannequin, positioning the canvas in the armhole and transferring the measurement found to the fabric, we can see and understand what the lines are, this understanding helps to understand the tracing made on the plane. This observation is not just mine, it is common for students to report that they were able to understand more about mangos after contacting the draping.
I will leave a list of sleeve modeling here that I taught on my Youtube channel, I hope this content will be useful for you and help you to see sleeve modeling with other eyes: