Another project

 I'm quite pleased with how this blouse turned out.

I had wanted to use one of my sleeve drafts and I also had this lovely Rose and Hubble fabric (this is the black and white colourway, I also bought some in the blue and white).

I should have paid more attention to which blouse pattern I picked - I had to adjust the shoulders too much on this one because this started out as a sleeveless top with those silly cap sleeves.  They look horrible on me, just make me look like a prize boxer: huge shoulders, it's totally the wrong proportion on me.

I finally managed to fit my sleeve template into the newly adjusted armhole, phew.

The sleeve is meant to have a peaked cuff.  The cuff is only attached at the bottom and was supposed to stand away from the sleeve at the peak.  I did adapt the pattern to give the cuff more room at the peak by slashing it and pulling the two pieces apart at the top (hinge at the hem/bottom) - leaving a gap of 3-4 mm. I didn't realise that this wouldn't be enough.  Because the cuff sits on top of the lower sleeve layer, it just doesn't leave any gap. Ah right, I'll know for next time.

This is a not very good photo of the sleeve:

I found some great buttons that go well with this:

I sewed the V-neck down from the right side by edge-stitching at about an inch, to make sure that the facings would stay down.

Drafting sleeve patterns

I've been messing around with drafting sleeve patterns. I even drew up quite a number of different designs, around 12 at last count, back in January. 

I made up a few of them as isolated samples, and that's how far I got. I only did a set of two cowl sleeves in a blue fabric I had from a fabric swap (love the colour of the fabric, thank you so much to whoever donated it!), but I have not decided yet what bodice pattern I want for this top. I'll Frankenpattern the needed armhole onto whatever bodice pattern I go for.

The other blouse I started at the beginning of the year was a Lekala pattern using the black and white colour way of a lovely Rose and Hubble fabric I got from Pound Fabrics. Unfortunately I did not do a muslin to check if the armhole goes with my sleeve template - it does not. So I will need to adjust the sleeve slightly. That might not be too much of a problem, but again, I have not decided on what sleeve design I want. I am waiting for inspiration to strike.

Now that we have November (where did the time disappear to?) I though I'd post at least some of my sleeve drafts. Perhaps this will inspire me to continue with either the cowl top or the Rose and Hubble sleeves.

I like this design - a tab gathers the horizontally folded fabric and pulls it into a bow. You could even have a press stud at one end so you can iron the sleeve flat and only gather the bow after pressing. It would be very practical.

The arrow I drew onto the lozenge* shaped bit indicates that you need to fold up the lower edge of the lozenge and align it with its top edge. The top end of the tab gets sewn into the fold, perhaps a little higher than my dotted line in the above photo.  You can stay-stitch the relevant sleevehead edge inside the seam allowance to keep the fold in place before sewing into the armhole. 

The self facing at the bottom is folded up inside for a neat hem finish.

And this is what a sample of this sleeve design looks like:

I am really enjoying this shape though I don't know just yet what it will look like when worn. Will the gathering tab look too prominent, too centered, too high?  It will be interesting to try out.

I suppose that there is no dire need to center it exactly, it could move a little towards the front or even the back. Once made up as a blouse I would like some photos to be taken so I can see what this looks like from an objective distance. Just checking the mirror does not give all the useful information you want to evaluate a style.

Please wish me luck that I will sew up a blouse with this sleeve design soon, or one of the other two I mentioned above. It would be so nice for my sewing motivation to come unstuck. Well, if not this year, then 2023 is 12 months long, surely I'll make some progress eventually.

*: Strictly speaking the shape I'm talking about could be called an elongated hexagon. I like lozenge, but this shape is obviously a stretched-out one. I hope you know what I mean.

Work on flat pieces first

So you're faithfully following along the sewing instructions of your pattern and then it suddenly becomes incredibly difficult to get your project under the machine's needle so you can work on a really tight area?  It's enough to give you grey hair!

Been there many times and I hate it.  Some commercial sewing pattern instructions seem determined to make things as difficult as possible.  Unfortunately these difficult to sew areas then make your garment look home-made rather than beautifully crafted.

Here's a principle that cuts down on some of those problem areas:  If in doubt work on the flat piece first.

Plackets, zips, pockets - what's the point of closing the long easy-to-do seams first and then do the fiddly bits?  I just don't get why some sewing instructions do this the difficult way around.

You don't need to stick to the order suggested.

Look at what features your garment has: double-ended darts, zip, plackets, pockets, pocket flaps, collar etc, etc? These are really nice sewing exercises (as long as you don't let the instruction sequence make your life more difficult).

Once you've cut out your pieces and overlocked what needs overlocking* - do all darts first before you sew anything else. No side seams, no nothing else. The sewing instructions usually start with this too, so no problem here. (The only exception I can think of is if a dart needs to meet another dart exactly: then it is much easier to close the seam first and sew the two darts as one across the seam. Anything to make life easier!)

*: But sew darts that end in a seam before you overlook the piece: less bulk when you take a single pass with your overlocker over the sewn up dart avoiding three layers of overlocking.

I used to hate having to do zips, now I like them more and more.  Sew them in first!

Don't even close the seam underneath yet (a lot of YouTube videos show it this way too so you're in good company), sew the zip onto both pieces and once you're happy with it close the seam underneath (make sure to off-set this line by a millimeter or so to avoid the pucker at the bottom of the zip).

Same thing for plackets on sleeves: sew them in before you attach the sleeve or close its side seam (a very good placket article on Threads shows it that way too).

Patch pockets: why go to the trouble of working on an almost assembled item when it is so much easier to sew a pocket onto flat fabric. In-seam pocket bags are also easier to do before you close the longer seams: a) attach a single pocket piece to one outer piece and b) the other pocket layer to the other piece - then c) sew the pocket layers to each other, and d) close the seam of the outer garment above and below the pocket opening.

I would attach a collar as soon as the shoulder seam is closed, before any other seam stitching.

Depending on the shape of a sleeve it can be easier to sew the sleevehead to the front and back of the garment before closing the side seams of body and sleeve - this is easier for wider, more relaxed styles. Sleeves that are quite tight and where the sleevehead needs to be eased into the armhole are better done after closing side seams.

Flat pieces are easier to manoeuvre and allow better accuracy. They are also easier to press (best sewing tip ever: press, press, and press again!).

Once you have these kinds of elements done, the rest of the garment is much easier to assemble: nice long seams that pull everything together. After that you are left with things like neckline bindings and hems that need to be done across all closed seams.  Couture houses work this way too: everything is done flat until only the long seams and hems are left over,

What do you think?  Is this useful?

Woven or stretch fabric?

I like trying out Lekala patterns because you can get a sewing pattern to your own measurements, and you can use the advanced features (called 'Optional' or 'Adjustments') to further personalise the pattern: arm or leg length relative to torso, neck or upper arm width, short-waisted, narrow-shouldered...  there are all kinds of different options.

This Lekala pattern #5081 is the most standard blouse pattern I found on the site. I thought it would make a good basic pattern that I could then adjust for other versions.

I am not sure though that the required fabric is listed correctly. It says: "Fabrics: Knit" and "Is stretchy: yes". Really?

Can this be right?  This is a blouse with bust darts, a buttoned front opening and placketed cuffs.  I have never seen these kinds of features in a pattern for stretch fabrics.  I feel that this has got to be a pattern for woven fabrics instead.

I decided to try a polycotton fabric to see how it works out.

Unfortunately the sleeve/body seam is very puckered despite gathering the sleevehead in the normal manner before sewing them in.  So there is not a good fit in this area.

On me the blouse shoulders are too wide (I didn't use the "narrow-shouldered" advanced option, I didn't think I was) - I may be able to adjust this by cutting the armholes a touch bigger to narrow the shoulder and sewing the sleeves as they are back in. This should reduce the puckering.

My biggest gripe is that the blouse doesnt overlap enough for buttonholes and buttons - in fact this would be a perfect fit if the front closed with a zip: the centre fronts fit wonderful if they meet flush with each other. I had to add a piece for the 'underlap' and attach loops to the edge of one side to catch the button I sewed onto the seamline with the added piece, i.e. onto the front centre line where they need to be.

I should be able to adjust the pattern at the front centre by adding about 2/3 of an inch (around 2cm). This would also increase the tiny little lapel to a more reasonable size (just look at them in the above photo: they're barely there!). I just feel that the very small lapels look rather ridiculous - as if something had gone wrong to be honest.

I think all round this is not the most successful of Lekala's patterns, but it has potential. I just dread having to make all the adjustments when I had been hoping I could just sew this together and be done. Which is really what you want when you go for a personalised pattern.

I am also not enamoured of my fabric choice: this polycotton is just that bit too stiff and I worry that I won't want to wear this blouse much.  A big reason why I am finding it so hard to finish this - this project has been languishing in my sewing basket for at least the last year.  What a shame.

What kinds of fabrics do you think are suitable for this pattern? Is the website right or should I try some other fabric?  I could really do with some advice and ideas.

Thank you.

A short one, two links

As promised in the headline, I quickly just wanted to share two links.

I came across this interesting web page where a few pattern making and couture techniques are explained. For example, just click on "pattern making techniques" and you'll see three articles about sleeves. http://thecuttingclass.com/post/3599880487/patternmaking-cut-and-spread-darts. I could spend hours and hours looking for inspiration ...

And I wanted to share my favourite link about pockets, those little gems I need to remember when cutting my fabric:
http://www.behind-the-hedgerow.com/2013/06/04/top-10-awesome-pockets-and-a-few-tutorials/. And, of course, the hint to our current sewalong: http://www.meetup.com/dressmakers/events/207867752/

See you