Sewing Project: Detachable Polyhedron Sleeves in Cork Fabric

Last time, I wrote about sleeve pattern experiments. So now I wanted to sort of continue the theme and write about my latest sewing project, which features detachable polyhedron sleeves.

As a material, I used black cork fabric. I had already been working with this material last winter when I was making my entry for the World of WearableArt competition. It got me into the finals, too! Here’s a pic:

In this case, I used natural cork fabric and painted the piece with acrylics, but for the sleeves, I wanted to try black cork fabric.

It was a bit more challenging to work with because black tends to make materials more rigid. Plus, I needed to be extra careful not to stretch the polyhedrons to avoid cracking the surface. But for the rest, I find cork fabric to be quite perfect for polyhedron projects!

As these would be rather special sleeves, I wanted them to be detachable. So, I added snaps. This way, the dress can be worn without them, too, and washed normally. I made the dress in midweight jersey to create a contrast between the materials.

Polyhedron Sleeve Pattern

This is a sleeve pattern experiment from last year. I had previously only made it in half-scale. It’s based on the lantern sleeve.

Here’s how to modify the basic sleeve block using the slash & spread method. Adjust the lengths of the two pieces to your liking. You won’t need much ease at the sleeve cap; feel free to lower it.

By the way, you will use this basic lantern sleeve pattern when cutting the sleeve’s lining.

The next step is to plan your polyhedron placement directly onto the lantern sleeve pattern. First, draw triangles. Don’t add any to the underarm area.

Match the triangles along the horizontal seam. I got a total of 25 pieces.

Then, fill in the 3 faces of each polyhedron.

Finally, you need to prepare the pattern pieces to add the height. For my sleeve, the polyhedron height varied between 5 and 8cm, depending on the size.

You’ll find a polyhedron tutorial here and a video here. I’m actually now using the Pythagorean Theorem to speed up the process but I understand if it sounds intimidating! 😀

If some of the triangles are identical, you won’t need a separate pattern piece for each.

When using materials such as cork fabric or faux leather, you can’t press the folds. So, you’ll need to add a bit of extra space between the polyhedron faces to accommodate a row of stitches that will create the fold. I added 4mm.

The final pattern pieces will look something like this. Add a narrow seam allowance all around the piece.

Preparing the Polyhedrons

Cut the polyhedron pieces for both sleeves. Keep the original draft at hand as you’ll need it to figure out the polyhedron order.

Then, organize the pieces in the correct order, keeping the three rows separate for now. The polyhedrons have one seam you need to close. So, pin the right sides together.

Here are my rows. The first one covers the area above the armhole notches.

Whatever you do, don’t mix up the order! 😀

Here’s how to sew the polyhedron shapes.

1. Close the seam.
2. Trim the seam allowance.
3. Turn the right sides out. When using dyed cork fabric, be extra careful. I needed to use a permanent marker to fix a few cracks. The sharper the tip, the more the seams will stretch.

4. Top stitch to flatten the seam. You can use a piece of cardboard or similar to balance the presser foot.

5. Stitch the two remaining folds near the edge. Trim the seam allowance at the corners.

Uniting the Polyhedrons

It’s a good idea to sew the polyhedrons together as you go. One row at a time.

The more the piece grows, the more difficult the task becomes. Rows 2 and 3 have a smooth piece at both ends. It’s the area under the arm.

Here are all three rows ready to be sewn together.

Then, unite the rows, matching the polyhedrons.

Even my Bernina struggled a bit with these!

In fact, you’ll likely have holes you need to fix in the end (see the arrows). I sewed these by hand because it was impossible to do with the sewing machine.

Don’t close the inseam. You can trim the seam allowances.

The Polyhedron Sleeve Lining

As I mentioned earlier, use the original lantern sleeve pattern for the lining. I chose plain cotton.

1. Sew the horizontal seam. Don’t close the inseam.
2. Sew a row of gathering stitches between the armhole notches and gather the sleeve cap slightly to match the armhole of the dress to which you intend to attach the sleeves. Plan the snap placement and add marks around the armhole of the dress pattern (mine had 5 snaps, distributed evenly between the armhole notches). Then, copy the placement to your sleeve lining. I fused heavyweight interfacing to the wrong side and made holes for the snaps.

3-4. Pin and sew the lining to the top edge of the polyhedron sleeve, right sides together.

Then, it’s time to attach the snaps to the sleeve lining. The pretty side will remain hidden inside the sleeve.

Then, you can finally close the inseams. It was quite tricky! And turning the right sides back out wasn’t easy either…

We’re not done, yet. As the two fabrics have such different weights, you’ll need to add top-stitches here and there to flatten the lining at the edges. I stitched near the snaps and between the polyhedrons

Lastly, close the sleeve hem. In this case, the only possible way was top-stitching.

And so the beautiful polyhedron sleeves are done!

What about the Dress?

You can make the dress from scratch using the basic bodice block or the dartless bodice block. Just decide this before making the sleeves as you will need to use the sleeve block that goes with the dress.

I made a simple trapeze dress with a high-low hem using the basic bodice block as a base. I rotated the bust dart and the shoulder dart towards the hem to create flare, and added some to the side seams and c-back as well.

The dress can have sleeves, too. Just make them slightly shorter than the polyhedron sleeves so they won’t show.

Mark the snap placement around the armhole, distributing them evenly. You won’t need them under the arm. Mine had 5 per sleeve simply because they sell these in packs of 10 snaps.

Here are my snaps. I think they look quite nice, like little decorations. So, I’m definitely going to use the dress like this, too! I added a double layer of heavyweight interfacing on the wrong side as the dress was made in jersey.

The End Result

Let’s see the sleeves on the dressform first.

And then, here’s me!

I was so excited about these. Talking about statement sleeves! 😀 The snaps weren’t showing much and the polyhedron sleeves weren’t too heavy to wear. I was also happy about the combination of the materials.

The two versions:

I think for the winter I’d like to get a long sleeved shirt to wear under the dress and matching tights. Maybe purple or teal? 3 dress styles in one! And of course, I could always make more snap-sleeves. 😀

What do you think?