Generate your Custom Grande Assiette Pattern

The Grande Assiette Sleeve is seen in several depictions of late 14th and 15th century dress., but is best known as the sleeve of the Charles de Blois pourpoint. This sleeve allows full 360-degree motion of the arm without affecting the body pieces of the garment. Because of this, several historic western martial artists (SCA and otherwise) use pourpoints beneath their armor as padding/for attaching points.

Drafting this sleeve is the most challenging part of patterning a pourpoint. This pattern generator generates the pattern using the steps described in Tasha Kelly's article on La Cotte Simple, Drafting a grande assiette-style upper sleeve from measurements. It performs the same steps that are manually described in her Grand Assiette Drafting Worksheet

If you want to make the entire pourpoint, Tasha Kelly has a Commercial Pattern of the Charles du Blois Pourpoint available as well.

Keep in mind that, even when drafted correctly, this pattern will produce a sleeve that has wrinkles and pouching when the arm hangs down by the side. You can see this even on the back of the original pourpoint below, which has been padded to fit the pourpoint and has the arm held in a 45-degree position.

Your Measurements

Enter all measurements in decimal notation (i.e., 5.75 and not 5 3/4).

Measurement unit: Inch    Centimeter    

Circumference of Armhole: inches.
This is the measurement of the outside edge of the large sleeve, not the measurement of your natural armhole.

Circumference of Largest Part of Upper Arm: inches

Circumference of Upper Arm Just Above Elbow: inches

Length from top of armhole to just above elbow: inches
This is the measurement from the edge of the inset grande assiette sleeve piece down over your shoulder to the elbow, usually at least 2-3 inches longer than the measurement from your shoulder point to your elbow.

Length from armpit to just above elbow: inches

Scale:


Explanation of Measurements

This generator creates a pattern for the part of the pourpoint colored in blue, below.

The armhole measurement is the large circular armhole described below rather than the standard armhole measurement around the shoulder joint.

The "Length from top of armhole to just above the elbow" measurement is shown below. It includes the shoulder area of the sleeve rather than being the standard "shoulder point to elbow" measurement.