All About Sleeves

These types of sleeves are cut like long rectangles and are usually gathered in multiple segments. The shoulder line is set very wide and shallow, too, which will give your sleeve a big and billowing shape from the shoulder all the way down.

Elastic can be used to help maintain the shape of these segments, or if kept looser, something stiffer like trims or ribbons.

Marie Sleeves look stunning with lighter weight fabrics that catch in the breeze. Try linen, shirtings, and voile for the best outcome!

• Chesterton White Calendered Cotton Oxford
• Mood Exclusive White Blooms of Nature’s Bounty Cotton Voile
• Sanremo Pink and White Two-Tone Linen Woven

You’ve probably seen a shirt with RAGLAN SLEEVES somewhere, right? These are incredibly comfortable for lounge shirts since the cut of the sleeve is loose on the shoulder. The shoulder’s hemline of the sleeve is different from others, because it reaches all the way to the neckline. It’s often a similar length to the ¾ SLEEVE.

Raglan sleeves are most often found on jersey knit shirts and performance wear!

• Black Solid Cupro Jersey
• Blue Sea Island Cotton Baby Knit
• Heather Charcoal Antibacterial and Wicking Polyester Jersey

FLOUNCE SLEEVES are a combination of a ¾ SLEEVE and a circular pattern piece that has a similar shape to a circle skirt. Think of it like a mini circle skirt, but for your arm! The actual sleeve can range in length, and so can the “skirt,” so this design can go a lot of ways!

Flounce sleeves look gorgeous whether they’re all one fabric, or two contrasting options, so don’t be afraid to experiment! Try a sturdy knit for warmer months, or opt for a lightweight charmeuse or lace for a springtime or summer look.

• Black, Pink and Green Floral Embroidered Mesh
• Burgundy Stretch Ponte Knit
• Monument and Creole Pink Ombre Silk Charmeuse

Recommended Free Sewing Pattern: The Hibiscus Robe

Wide at the shoulder and tapered down to the wrist, LEG-OF-MUTTON SLEEVES get their name from looking like a sheep’s leg. The final look of it has a large puff around the shoulder and narrows down most of the arm and to the wrist. The puff is mostly at the shoulder and does not continue down.

Historically, many mutton sleeve garments were made with wool, but today we often see them in simple shirtings and rib knits.

• Italian Jean Blue 2×2 Wool Rib Knit

• Monochrome Tropical Digitally Printed Mercerized Cotton Woven

• Pink 100% Pima Cotton Broadcloth

The pattern shape for POET SLEEVES isn’t as wide as a CAPE SLEEVE, but it does have a bit of an angle, so it’s kind of in the middle between a CAPE SLEEVE and a MARIE SLEEVE. And similar to the MARIE SLEEVE, it is gathered just above the wrist, but only once, to give a bell-ish shape to the top of the sleeve.

POET SLEEVES also sometimes have an uneven shape at the wrist, kind of like a wave, to give it a flowing shape when finished!

Like Bishop sleeves and Marie sleeves, poet sleeves look best with lightweight, semi-sheer fabric options. Try out your favorite voile, linen, or even a lace for a truly decadent garment!

• French Vanilla Medium-Weight Linen
• Mood Exclusive Apollo’s Disguise Beige Cotton Voile
• Cluny Lace with Scalloped Eyelash Edges

SLIT SLEEVES are exactly what they sound like—sleeves with a slit down the center. These are an open-type sleeve that are a lovely option for revealing shoulder designs. This design flows very nicely, too.

Take the pattern shape for a MARIE SLEEVE, draw in a narrower shape for around the shoulder, and cut it down the center to get your two pieces!

Slit sleeves are fairly versatile and can be made with a wide range of fabrics. For some every day looks, we recommend satin, lace, and even velour!

• Luminous Adobe Rose Wrinkled Polyester Woven
• Navy Geometric Lace with Finished Eyelash Edges
• Silver Stretch Velour

Recommended Free Sewing Pattern: The Rosa Blouse

TIERED SLEEVES require a little bit of work, because—like the PETAL SLEEVE—you need to work multiple, overlapped pattern pieces. Four pieces, to be precise.

In the picture for the TIERED SLEEVE, you can see the four different pieces, all longer than the last. You can sew them all together as one big piece along the sides for a more stable shape or sew them together at the shoulder for a looser flow for the tiers.

With layers, you want to make sure you don’t make your garment too heavy, so we recommend sticking to lightweight fabrics such as chiffon, lawn, voile, and light silks.

• Moonstruck Silk Charmeuse
• Rose Shadow Accordion Pleated Chiffon
• Dusty Peach Japanese Pima Cotton Lawn

Perhaps the tiniest sleeve of all in this compilation, the CAP SLEEVE! Obviously, this sleeve is very short, just a little lip coming out from the shoulder hemline. The pattern shape is very wide and has the slightest, gentle slope to it.

It’s size usually doesn’t range, and its pattern shape is pretty unique as well. It’s a design often use for t-shirt-cut designs.

Cap sleeves are a great alternative to basic t-shirt sleeves, so they’re often seen in jersey knits, but you could also use sateen and other wovens!

• Light Blue Stretch Bamboo Jersey
• Mood Exclusive Poppy Rivieras Stretch Cotton Sateen
• Khaki Solid Cupro Jersey

And there you have it! Some of the most common types of sleeves used in fashion broken down. There are other sleeve types available, but hopefully this is enough to help get you started and have an easier time planning how to draft out your sleeves! Have you made any of these yourself before reading this article? What other sleeve types do you think would be useful to know about? Leave some comments and share your knowledge and projects!