Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Making the sleeves






Since my last post, the better part of a day was spent sewing the lining into the jacket body.  There will be some detail shots later, but the process isn't really worth belaboring.  I'm just glad it's done.  


The next step is sewing and setting the sleeves.  At this point Mr. Cabrera has one draft sleeves that will fit the wearer to a T.  I just don't feel that I have the skills or the time to wade through all this.  Plus, I'm fitting myself, so I can't stand in front of a mirror and pin a muslin sleeve onto myself.  To err on the side of caution, however, I removed one of my muslin sleeves to check that it would fit the armscye.  It did, so I'm moving forward.  


My pattern does not have vented sleeves, so I'm adding them by taping on a 1.25" by 6.5" extension to both the upper and under sleeve patterns.  I also thought my muslin sleeves were a little long.  I prefer to have some shirt cuff showing.  So I shortened them by 3/4".  This was easily done by just sewing a tuck into the Swedish tracing paper.  I just love the stuff! 


The sleeve cuffs are reinforced with a strip of bias cut pocketing material.  It's basted into place and then secured to the seam allowances to keep it from shifting around in the finished sleeve.  The extensions are then folded, mitered and pressed into their final configuration.  The sleeve is then machine stitched to 1/4" below the vent extensions.  Cabrera warns against clipping the seam at the overlap.  The seam is just pressed open which will create a diagonal fold.  In my next post the sleeves will be lined.    

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