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Tuesday 30 June 2009

Urrrghg sleeves


9PM
Right now a sleeveless blouse seems like a great idea.
For one its boiling hot and two I am having great trouble getting a huge sleeve into a tiny armhole.
I gathered the excess and it just looked crazy.

Its a shame as the sleeves are made up complete with beautifully top stitched cuffs and everything.
Maybe its time for a coffee and then I'll come back and look at it again.

I put the blouse on and put the sleeve on separately, pushed the sleeve up so the armhole is in the right place, and the sleeve cap is way too tall for some reason I can't work out. Think it would ruin it to cut some off the top?

10:30pm Updated to add
Sleeves are in, I decided a slight gathered look is OK and echoes the bust gathering.
Have also made all the buttonholes, so just handsewing the buttons now and I'm done.

11pm
Latest update
Here's the shirt with all the buttons sewn on. Each cuff also has 2 buttons though they don't show in this photo.

4 comments:

gwensews said...

I find that most often the sleeve cap has too much ease for the armsythe. I measure both, and reduce the sleeve cap ease to about 3/4". It looks like you worked out your problem though. Godo job.

patsijean said...

Nope. I know you don't want to here this, but I would not leave the sleeves like that. Everything else on that shirt is near perfect and the sleeves do not work. Not your fault, the pattern obviously has a badly drafted sleeve pattern. You don't usually need more than 1-1/4" to 1-1/2" in a natural fiber that will ease well or less when dealing with a poly or a tightly woven fabric that will not ease. I would take out those sleeves and trim down the sleeve cap a LITTLE at a time until you get a good fit. Trim from the top of the cap first so that you don't end up with a point at the top. Use the thread gathering method of insertion.
Here are some links, but most of my information comes from my library.
http://www.ditzyprints.com/true.html
http://rustybobbin.com/blog/?m=200410

If you don't have this book, Fast Fit by Sandra Betzina, you can get it from Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1561586498
The Zapp Method of Couture Sewing is also very good. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0873496817?ie=UTF8&redirect=true

As a matter of fact you will see a plethora of good sewing books for your sewing library.

Ann said...

Ruthie, your JCC is great and I do love the colour. It is a very different colour thread for you but a nice choice.
Regarding the sleeve, I agree with patsijean on redoing the sleeve. I would start out not trimming the sleeve and do machine gathering (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUqkJuIsaJA&feature=channel is the first part of gathering and inserting a sleeve). If it isn't working nicely, then trim the sleeve. I do this for my western shirts all the time and my sleeves fit in perfectly.
With holes showing from pins and basting, I use steam to help them disappear. It helps and they do seem to disappear in the cotton fabrics I use.
Good luck in redoing the sleeves of your shirt. You are going to love this shirt once you have it adjusted.
Ann

Carla said...

One more idea, Ruthie. This may not be at all what truly looks good but simply move all the gathers up to about the top three inches at the shoulder line. I've seen many blouses made to have gathers there and nowhere else. I know it's not the look you were orginally going for but before you begin cutting into your sleeve fabric, you might try it. It could be a fast and simple fix.