Seeing as I haven’t sewn anything since Halloween, I decided a bit of practice before starting the course would do me good. At Pauline’s (the woman who founded and runs the NCC) suggestion, I decided to have a crack at the sleeves on this 1930s dress, courtesy of Janet Arnold’s Patterns of Fashion 2:

So that’s what they’re supposed to look like. The pattern:

Scaled up:

Result:

Okay, so it’s one half of one sleeve. But the point is, I spent ages fiddling around with pins and gathers, and I don’t think the result is half bad!

Let’s hope this is the start of a positive trend.