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How to Make Gathered Tunic Sleeves

Making gathered sleeves on your tunic dresses it up and adds feminine style. Gathered sleeves are not flat, but have shirring. You can make the sleeve gathered at the cap only, gathered at the cap and hem of the sleeve, or gathered just at the sleeve hem. The sleeve can be long or short, adjustable from a plain sleeve pattern. This project is for a sleeve gathered at the sleeve hem.

Things You'll Need

Tunic sleeve pattern
2 yards of fabric
5-inches of 1/2-inch elastic
Sewing machine
Pencil
Ruler
Thread
Scissors
Tape

Instructions

- 1
  Lay the sleeve pattern on a table or other flat surface.
- 2
  Draw five equally spaced dots along the hem of the sleeve pattern. Draw five equally spaced dots on the seam allowance line on the cap of the sleeve.
- 3
  Use the ruler to draw lines connecting the dots on the hem of the sleeve to the dots at the cap.
- 4
  Cut along the lines from the hem up to 1/4-inch below the dots on the cap.
- 5
  Spread the hem 1-inch at each of the 5 clipped lines and tape them into place.
- 6
  Fold your fabric in half and lay it on a table or other flat surface.
- 7
  Lay your new sleeve pattern on the folded fabric and cut through both fabric layers. You will now have two sleeves.
- 8
  Cut the elastic to 5 inches long.
- 9
  Fold the hem of the sleeve back toward the inside of the sleeve 1/2-inch.
- 10
  Place the elastic centered on the folded fabric, on the inside of the sleeve. The elastic should cover the raw edge of the fabric.
- 11
  Stretch the elastic from edge to edge and sew the elastic to the sleeve using the zigzag stitch.
- 12
  Sew the side seams of each sleeve together, 1/2 inch from the edge using the machine straight stitch.

Sewing