How to make false chemise/sleeve puffs? (picture heavy)

[gem]

I am looking to fake the look of a chemise puffing through tie-on sleeves, without the actual full chemise. I'm not entirely sure how to make the "puff" part. Suggestions?

I have this blue dress from Museum Replicas (full size pic here):



What that picture doesn't show is that the sleeves are *crazy* long!  They're  at least 12" too long on me, and they're also quite narrow (so I can't just scrunch them up my arm), with decorative buttons & other pretties at the wrist. So I need to shorten them, but I need to do it somewhere along the length. Fortunately, there's a seam around midway down the upper arm that looks like a good candidate.

But. The dress is *also* quite plain, so when I make this alteration, I want to add a little detail. I want to mimic the look of tie-on sleeves, with chemise puffs peeking out of the gap.  We have a costume in our collection with a beautiful sleeve treatment I'd love to replicate:



(It's actually quite lovely IRL--it's burnout stretch velvet--it just looks rather sad on the hanger!)

And closeups:




Obviously my puffs will be white, but I love the crisscross looping of the buttons and think it would add a lot the MR dress. 

Anyone have suggestions for actually *doing* this? I will probably use some scrap hanky-weight linen for the puffs, and silk ribbon for the ties. But beyond that, I'm not sure how to construct the puffy look.

Gramercy!!

[Lady Rebecca]

Theatrical costuming-wise, puff sleeves are made by having a fitted sleeve underneath. If you want to go this route, I recommend making a fitted sleeve to be used as the lining. Then, wherever you want the puffs, just attach the puff to the lining, already in its puffed form. Finally, stitch the fabric of the sleeve pieces around the lining sleeve, make some eyelets, and run your ties through them.

Though just to warn you, while this works in my head, I've never actually tried it before with any sleeve smaller than a regency puffed sleeve.

[operafantomet]

Like Lady Rebecca said, the easiest way is to have a stretched fabric underneath. It will make sure the puffed fabric stays puffed, as it cannot be stretched out.

I've only made these kind of sleeves once, and that was aaaages ago... But from what I remember I did have a straight fabric under the puffed part (but not for the whole sleeve). For the puffs I used a fabric which was about twice as long and almost twice as broad as the narrow sleeve. It was sewn into a tube, gathered on top and bottom, and then stitched to the narrow part of the sleeve. I remember twisting and turning it a bit to make the puffs (hard to explain). This is how the dress looked:



So for your dress the crossed ribbons will be purely decorative. In period dresses they would be used to hold the various parts of a sleeve together, and letting the chemise show through. But as long as you're making a supporting layer underneath and only a fake chemise, the ribbons will not be functional. Probably easier to get them even that way.

[gem]

Thanks!

Anea, this is more or less what I was thinking:

For the puffs I used a fabric which was about twice as long and almost twice as broad as the narrow sleeve. It was sewn into a tube, gathered on top and bottom, and then stitched to the narrow part of the sleeve.

I'll use the blue cotton cut from the sleeves as a base layer to stitch the shirred lengths to so I have something solid to work with. I'm thinking I'll probably shirr the puffs while they're flat, attach them to the blue lining, finish the edges, and then sew them into tubes. I feel pretty confident about this in my head, but it's still nerve-wracking to cut apart a perfectly good dress you didn't make ... even if it's not wearable as is.

[gem]

Update:

So here's the first test of the false puffs:



Looking pretty good so far! Anea was right, of course: you have to sew them into tubes *first,* or there isn't any way to finish the sides. That's why we do tests. These are 2x length by 1.5x width/height, and I'm thinking I might not make them quite that wide. It makes a nice puff, but maybe a bit fuller than what I'm thinking for this project.

Still need to make it to JoAnn to get buttons and ribbon/cording, but this is seeming more feasible, at least!

[Kate XXXXXX]

Those are looking good so far. 

[Marietta Graziella]

Gem, I love learning along with you.  Thank you for always sharing your questions, test, successes, and learning alternatives.