[Roxyrox]

I am planning on making a Garden Party dress for my daughters first day of school dress this year. The sleeves seem a little dressy and I would like to make them less “poofy” can I switch them out for another sleeve or do I need to take the fullness out of these? Any other ideas/suggestions?

Thanks

[Nicole]

The sleeve cap is not that gathered but I can understand what you mean by then looking ‘poofy’.

I would consider narrowing the sleeves down to the sleeve hem, tapering them, but I probably would leave the sleeve cap be.

[Nicole]

I made two versions with longer sleeves, they have a more casual feel, one is a farm/play dress.

[Roxyrox]

I decided to cut the sleeve a little bit longer (1-1.5″) and did a very narrow hem. I then took a 2″ piece of 1/8″ elastic and stitched that (while stretching) about 1/4 above the hem along the center hem line. It pulled the sleeve down making the sleeve less “poofy” but not too tight for my daughter (who doesn’t like elastic in sleeves). The dress is beautiful and she loves it.

[Maggie]

I was going to attempt to make a less poofy sleeve by using the pattern from the croquet dress sleeve of the same size. (When the Garden Party dress was introduced Lisel said she started with the Croquet dress pattern.) Only attempting this because A) I’m working with a little extra fabric B) I can always make it sleeveless.

Will let you know how it turns out!

[Maggie]

The croquet dress sleeves fit perfectly but it wasn’t the look I was quite going for, so I am going back to the original ones!

[Reeni]

I made the Garden Party with longer sleeves just by extending the pattern piece in a straight line… it turns out less puffy because it lays closer to the arm. It’s in the Flickr photo pool but far back as it was last year’s Easter dress.