The Boheme Fit and Flare Sleeves - The Bow Sleeve

The bow sleeve is pieces - 18 and 19.

There are two options, cutting four pieces in your fashion fabric OR two pieces in fashion fabric and two in lining.

This is self faced, I would suggest if using a thicker fabric, that a lighter complementary one be used for the back of each side to reduce bulk around the armseye.

It is not necessary to finish the edges, they are all encased.

Match your mirror pieces together and pin.

Sew using a 5/8” seam allowance.

Stop 5/8” before the edges as shown.

Trim the stitched areas down.

and snip the corners

Flip your piece right side out. It’s a slow process as you feed the sleeve through the edge of the sleeve, take your time. I’ve found a chopstick to be very useful here!

Press well.

A top stitch added now would be lovely around the edges….

To join the two ends, place them one on top of the other, there are four layers in total.

Pin the middle two together and sew the seam at 5/8”

Trim the seam allowance down.

Fold the top seam over itself to enclose the raw edge and pin. Repeat for the underside.

Sew as close to the edge as your machine can handle. This area is thick with all the layers, mine definitely struggled.

After playing around with a few finishes, I really do think this is the easiest by far.

Fold your piece in half lengthways and press - before folding a small seam allowance in on both sides to encase the raw edges.

Fold the length way edges in on themselves, to meet in the middle

Before running a stitch along both edges.

Attach it to the bottom of the sleeve, to create the bow.

For those who hate hand sewing i’m sorry! but there is really no other way to finish this. I did use my machine for one version and you end up with raw edges and additional bulk.

A matching double thread, and some quick stitches really does finish it nicely.

Once sewn, twist the sewn edge to the inside.

To finish the sleeve, cross your upper sections over, and sew two rows of basting stitches from notch to notch.

There is minimal gathering needed when sewing the sleeve to the bodice, but depending on bodice adjustments it is worth adding here as it holds the sections together regardless!