Butterick 6183: project-delay and setting sleeves for beginners

This top could have been finished by now if I only had a machine foot to sew in a regular zipper. The problem: I hadn't. Somehow I've never realized the quiet absence of this accessory for my sewing machine. Thinking back I've only used blind zippers for years, and have never missed a regular zipper foot. I probably assumed it is a sort of standard accessory which comes with every sewing machine. Apparently mine came without...
Visited all sewing machine shops in town but none of them had one, so I had to turn to internet shopping once more. While waiting for the zipper foot to arrive I show you how I set in the sleeves. It is a sort of beginner tutorial, I guess besides setting in zippers this is the hardest thing to sew.
Back in my first sewing years I used to sew the sleevecaps to the armholes flat, before finishing the underarm and side seams. It was not an elegant method.
After a while I tried to set in sleeves like the pro's do and often ended up with a sleeve with the wrong side out.
Nowadays I do stitch the sleeve but set it into the armhole in two parts.


1. Ease sleevecap: sew between the dot markings
I usually sew 2 rows, sometimes 3 with a long stitch length.
Adjust the upper pressure of your machine (I normally use 4, now turn the button to 2) By doing this the machine won't pull the bobbin thread up. This allows you to gather the fabric by pulling the bobbin threads.


2. Stitch underarm seam, press and turn the sleeve right side out:


3. Put the sleeve into the armhole, with sleevecap on the outside. This way you put the right sides together. Look at the matching notches to see which sleeve goes which side (usually one notch marks the front and two the back)


4. match and pin notches and small dots

important: don't forget to adjust the upper pressure back to normal!

5. sew the lower half of the armhole seam between the small dots, from the eased part down

6. align the big circle on the sleeve (which marks the center line) with the shoulder seam and pin (I find it easier to put pins at the small dots as well, but you don't need it if you use a contrasting color for the ease stitches)


7. pull the double (or triple) bobbin thread you used to build in ease


8. distribute wrinkles between center circle and small dots and pin. Use as many pins as you want. I use a lot!
Sew upper part of armhole seam between the small dots from the sleeve side.
Overlap a bit with the previous seam you made on the lower part of the armhole.


9. cut and finish seam allowance (I used a second row of straight stitches and finished with a zigzag.


10. press!

sewing for victory - 5. another fitting intermezzo

Well, still busy with my muslins, this is a post on muslin and pattern adjustments and fitting books! And since the deadline is just a week away, today's western inspired movie theme is at the hell's gate...


altering the bodice:
Let's start with the fitting-issues of Siplicity 3688.
I've shortened the bodice by taking out 2 cm all around,to get rid of the side-bagginess. This was a bit of free-hand work, so please ignore deny the obviously diagonal seam across the front!

Left is the first muslin version, right is the shortened one. Side-bagginess gone, because the pleats are sitting at my waist instead on my belly.
(Of course, I need to add the same length to the hem at the end)


Here you see that the red waistline is sitting at my natural waist now:


The sides look just the same, though there is no wrinkle at the back, onlya huge amount of excess fabric, which is emphasized by my swayback. The wrinkle was caused by insufficient amount of width of the back hem (need to widen that anyway)
Left original, right shortened version:


The back obviously needed darts or something to take out fabric in the middle section. First I tried to add two (rather modestly sized) darts with little to no effect. Do you see the difference? Me neither...


At the end of the day I just decided to add four dart-pleats, similar to the front. Finally, this eliminated the excess fabric and as a bonus, I was able to pull it on without ripping the side seams:


Now I can adapt the below-the bust part of this blouse for my own 40's 'frankenpattern'! Now, let's see what to do with the tight sleeves.

sleeve adjustment
To add width to the upper part of my sleeves I decided to use the pivot-and-slide method, video below by Nancy Zieman. This is by far the easiest way to adjust pattern pieces and works for me better than cutting and spreading the patterns. Note, it works only if you need to adjust small amounts of width, a maximum of 1 inch per side! The fitting book I own (The perfect fit) shows the cut-and-spread method, which makes the original sleevecap a bit fuller,which means you should adjust the armhole seams of the bodice too:


Here is another video with a more lengthy, step-by-step explanation of exactly the same method. This one discuss lengthening long sleeves as well:

books about fitting:


Which is your favorite fitting method and fitting book?

• I know a lot of sewers love Pati Palmer's 'Fit for real people' series, but I just really, really, really hate the idea of tissue-fitting!
• I own 'The perfect fit' which is a really good book with clear pictures, covering basic aspects of fitting. 
• 'Pattern fitting with confidence' which Nancy Zieman discusses in the video below seems to be a good one, as far as pattern alterations go. They just work, even if I only tested the sleeve alteration so far, it seems to me a logical approach indeed. I don't know if there are any good pictures included of what you exactly see on the garments, like drag-lines,bulking etc?
• I'm dreaming of buying another, rather expensive fitting book, 'Fitting and Pattern Alteration: A Multi-Method Approach to the Art of Style Selection, Fitting, and Alteration' from Elizabeth Liechty et.al. The advantage of this book is that it is very comprehensive (480 pages!!!) This book offers 3 different methods to adjust your pattern for every problem. Since I've recently invested in another expensive pattern-making book here I can't spend more money on books right now, but this one is certainly on my wish-list!

Next time, hopefully something different than a muslin!

For other Sew for Victory posts click here:
1. project plan
2. style, pattern & fabric inspiration
3. muslin, the good, the bad and the ugly
4. taking a few steps sideways

Marfy dress - sleeve variation

The longer I looked at the pictures the more I thought there is something wrong... Guess what, it turned out it was the sleeve. Somehow, there is just too much of volume there, it draws all attention away from the pretty details of the bodice and the skirt:
  

I figured, I had to take out some of the volume to make it look better.
Here are the before and after pictures (going from the 1980's to the 1940's!):
   

How I did it?
It is a quite simple change. I didn't even removed the sleeve.
First of all, the type of sleeve I wanted is the classic 1940's type puffed but short, straight sleeve. I took out the Colette Ceylon dress pattern. It is another contemporary but definitely vintage style pattern. The sleeves are gathered at the shoulders but further plain. Exactly what I wanted for this dress too:



Comparing the patterns the sleeves they have a different sleeve cap, so I left that as it was.
I was interested in lower end of the sleeve. The Marfy pattern is made for a classic gathered sleeve, it widens towards the cuff. The Ceylon dress pattern is more fitted, narrower at the bottom.

1. I folded the wider bottom parts inwards, parallel with the side lines of the Colette pattern:



2. As you can see the bottom curve is just the opposite (inwards on the Ceylon pattern) so I took that over too. That's it!
I might make the sleeves slightly longer (an inch or so =2,5 cm) falling just above the elbow.
With this little modification my muslin is just perfect and the pattern pieces are adjusted too. Just have to find the right fabric to sew up this dress! My first idea was to use cotton fabric but I realized that it would look much better in a fabric with a better drape.