Inspiration....

When does a simple dress turn into amazing?  It's all in the details.  In checking out dresses at Neiman Marcus, I found this lovely example:

Can't get much simpler can you?  This is a dress that you need to look at and zoom in close at the sleeves.  Here's a sleeve closeup:

This reminds me of a cartridge pleat.  I'm not sure what type of pleat it is, exactly.  A cartridge pleat would sewn into a seam and as you can see this is not.  My guess this is the beaded ruffle is hand sewn onto the sleeve of the dress.

I think this would be a great way to wear a ruffle.  It would be fairly simple to duplicate with a simple little dress pattern and add the ruffle on the sleeve.  The hardest part would be to figure out the exact amount of the fabric for the ruffle but a good jumping spot would be 2x's the circumference of the sleeve.

Here's the details on the dress so you can look it up on the Neiman Marcus website:  Lela Rose Pearly Beaded Flutter Sleeve Tunic Dress;  price tag:  $1495.00.

This dress is far out of my price range but if I was duplicating it, it would be knee length instead of tunic length.  I would probably consider a different color also.  Although I do like a pale pink, I think that for me a darker color would be much better.  This is why we sew, right?

If you know what type of pleat that is, please let me know.  If you've worked how to re-create the sleeve, please send me a link.

Happy Sewing!