Raising Armholes

One reason many sewists like European patterns like Burda is that the armholes are higher. Contrary to what may be one's first intuition, the lower the armhole, the less movement one has in the arm.

I like to think of it this way - imagine if the armhole was down by your wrist. Ridiculous, yes, but anyway....if the armhole is at the wrist, your sleeve is attached to your jacket at the wrist. As soon as you raise your arm, your jacket hem comes with it.

OK, so if your armhole is down at your elbow, then in effect your sleeve is attached to your jacket at about waist level. You will be able to move your arm out a bit, maybe 30° from your side, but that's about it.

If the armhole is at bust level, you might get another 10° of movement. But you're not really going to be able to move that arm up very much until the armhole/jacket attachment is right up under the arm.

If you take a look at your RTW clothing you'll see how this works. Things that are fitted in the torso and sleeves allow for a lot of freedom of movement of the arm. Athletic wear, fitted sweaters, and fitted tees are good examples. Check out those armholes...they are very high on the shoulder and high under the arm.

I think that people get confused b/c they associate loosely fitted garments with freedom of movement and the more loosely fitted a garment is, the lower the armhole is. In the case of a boxy cardigan style jacket for example...The armhole is big and low, but the side of the jacket stands out about half a mile from your actual torso. So when you move your arm up, all that flappy stuff underneath moves around too, and you don't really notice it b/c it's all over at the neighbor's house anyway.

OK, so back to the point of the post...many American pattern company's jacket armholes may have to be raised for more freedom of movement. I recently raised a Vogue jacket armhole by 1 1/4" (after that post, I added even more to the underarm!) It's easy to raise an armhole...just remember that what you do on the sleeve, you must do on the torso, and visa versa.

I raised the jacket torso armhole in the underarm piece here: (I'm not a neat pattern-alterer!)
So I had to raise the sleeve underarm here:
(The purple "design" is where I matched the plaid to the armhole...I couldn't see my pencil marks.)

What if it had been a one piece sleeve and traditional front/back bodice with no underarm piece? I would have raised the torso underarm like this:And I'd have to raise the sleeve underarm like this:
So what if you forget to raise a low armhole before cutting your fashion fabric? Well, then you make a gusset. Laura did this for her Chanel jacket recently.

Can you see that when you put the front and back torso together the raised armhole parts make a kind of half football shape?Ditto for the sleeve parts:And of course two half football shapes make a whole football shape: (imagine this as a person with their arm up in the air)You can draft and cut a football shaped gusset and add it into your garment even after you've cut the fashion fabric. This dress has a gusset though you won't see it unless she reaches for the sky.

Tissue-fittting my daughter's Vogue #7979 coat yesterday I determined that the armhole is pretty good. It' s about 6 1/2" deep. I think that for an outerwear coat, that is probably sufficient. But considering my recent experience with my own jacket armhole, and b/c I didn't make a muslin, I'll probably raise it a bit for cutting and the first fitting. The thing about raising the armhole is that you can always scoop it out later. But if it's too short, you have to go through the much more tedious job of creating a gusset.

OK, enough underarm stuff, huh? Perhaps I should get on to doing some hem$.

Vogue Jacket Sleeves

Usually I use crimping or crowding to ease sleeve caps in dresses and tops. But for the tailored jacket, Vogue 7467 I thought I'd put in a little more effort. Anyway, with the hair canvas interfacing making the wool heavier, crowding would've been ineffective.

So I ran two rows of 4.5mm basting stitches. Pulled them up and pressed on the tailor board:

They looked so good I thought that setting them would be easy.

sigh....

Not so. I hand basted them in quite meticulously and still had to make adjustments. I spent quite awhile trying to get the plaid to match in the back of the cap but finally had to give up that idea, which placed too much ease at the uppermost back shoulder.
Finally satisfied, I machine stitched the sleeves in place.
I used a "mustache" sleeve head that Sewing Diva Els sent me from Denmark! That part was easy enough. Though, honestly, I'm not sure I put them in right. I put the bigger end in the back of the cap.

Correction 10/7/07: Els is Dutch and lives in the Netherlands. Duh. I had to do quite a bit of fussing with the steamer to get the caps just right. They seemed to want to be a bit too pronounced for my taste. I thought about pressing the cap/shoulder seam open to flatten them out like a men's jacket...but actually, with my "weak" shoulders, I decided a little volume there wouldn't hurt.

I did not, as I'd expected, have to remove any of the 1 1/4" I added to raise the armscye base.

What's next? Closing the lining, sewing on the buttons, and revising and attaching patch pockets. (I already made the pockets once according to the pattern, but I decided they are too big, and I don't like the way they stand away from the body...my hips already stand away from my body.) Hopefully the next post on this project will be the last.

Raglan Sleeve

A raglan sleeve actually extends over the shoulder to the neckline. It is very flattering to those with well-defined, (but not too narrow, wide, sloping or erect) shoulders and those with feminine curves. The diagonal lines of raglan sleeves can be slimming. And it provides good freedom of motion and is very comfortable to wear.

As with set-in or dropped sleeves, the raglan usually has a distinct front and back in the "cap" area. In other words, they are most often asymmetrical and you must cut a right and a left.

However, in some cases, especially in casual knitwear or very loose peasant tops, the raglan sleeve may be symmetrical with left and right sleeves interchangeable.

As with other types of sleeves the raglan comes in many variations.

It may be cut all in one piece when meant for a knitted or stretchy fabric (stretch of the fabric allows for bend over the shoulder.)
It may have a dart at neckline for the shoulder shaping.










Or, it may be cut in two pieces, the seam providing the shaping over the shoulder (again, a seam can be a dart.)









A very wide raglan sleeve is often seen in a peasant blouse or dress, gathered at the neckline. There may be very little shaping in the arm/bodice seams in this case. They may even be straight lines. This raglan sleeve will be very wide and may be symmetrical.

Raglan sleeves are very easy to insert. The armhole/sleeve seams are relatively straight. And even if the raglan sleeve is inserted after the underarm and side seams are sewn up ("in the round"), since the armhole opening extends right into the neckline, the area of sleeve insertion is large and open and the sleeve is easy to manipulate.

OK, Have we had enough sleeves for awhile? Phew.

P.S. I ordered Drawing for Dummies. It can't hurt, right?

Set - In Sleeve

This is the fourth post on types of sleeves preceded by kimono, dolman, and dropped sleeves.

Usually "set-in" refers to the traditional, high-fitting sleeve. The shoulder/sleeve seam sits right at the crest of the wearer's shoulder socket. The sleeve must be cut with a high cap and enough ease to provide an attractive curve over the deltoid.

Maximum freedom of movement for the arm (without disturbance of the rest of the garment, that is) is achieved when the base of the armhole is high under the arm. Note that if you own close fitting t-shirts or active wear, they all have high armholes and sleeves with deep caps.

There are several things to be aware of when dealing with set-in sleeves.

• They can be inserted "in the round" or "flat."

For the former, left, the underarm seams of body and sleeve are completed first, and the tubular sleeve is sewn into the resulting "hole" in the bodice.

Flat insertion, right, is done mainly in industry or very casual clothes. The sleeve is sewn into the armhole before the body's side seam and the sleeve underarm seam are sewn. So, the garment is "flat" when the sleeve is attached. Then, the underarm seam is sewn from wrist all the way to the garment body hem.

• Set-in sleeves are not symmetrical. What I mean is that there is a definite front, and back, to the sleeve.

Think of sleeves as hands. If you have fitted leather gloves you have only one way to put them on. They are not interchangeable. Set-in sleeves are the same. There is a right and a left sleeve. They are mirror images, not super-imposable.

Often students will mistakenly cut two right or two left sleeves. Remember you need one of each. If hands were sleeves and the backs of your hands the right sides of the fabric and the palms the wrong sides of fabric, the only way you can lay them together is in mirror image, in prayer position. Sleeves have this same property.

The reason that sleeves are asymmetrical is because the front of the sleeve is shaped differently than the back.

Think about your arm now. It's definitely not the same in the front as in the back. The arm is tilted forward at the shoulder. Also, it is more concave in the front, convex in the back. The sleeve needs more coverage in the back, less in the front. That is reflected in the sleeve cap pattern - there is more fabric (width and length) in the back of the cap.
Front and back armholes are not the same either. The front of your chest is sort of hollowed out, concave, where it meets the arm. At the same level on your back, your body is full and convex. So...the armhole is more scooped in the front, and is flatter and longer in back to accommodate the outward curve there.

• Conventionally on American patterns there is one notch on the front sleeve cap and two on the back. There is a dot at the point where the top of the cap meets the shoulder seam.

• There are also smaller dots between which the sleeve is meant to be eased. I almost always find it better to just ease the sleeve all along the sides of the cap. You can get more ease in this way and it looks smoother.

Here, the wobbly line indicates where I usually ease the sleeve, rather than between the two small dots.

There are several ways to ease in a set-in sleeve. I almost always just stitch around just outside the seam line of the cap with a larger than normal stitch length and maybe slightly tighter tension. I do this before or after I sew the underarm seam, it doesn't matter. And because I am sewing through only one layer of fabric, the tension of the stitching causes the fabric to draw up a bit. Which is exactly what you want. But more on easing sleeve caps in a future post.

• Some set-in sleeves on very fitted dresses have elbow darts. It is also very common in fitted jackets for sleeves to be cut in two pieces (remember, seams can act as darts) to achieve shaping.

• There are a jillion style variations on the set-in sleeve. And you will find an excellent discussion of these (with much better illustrations) here: Modern Pattern Design. Be sure to scroll down far enough to see all the types of sleeves.
  

In fact, this entire book is available here along with other sewing books that are past copyright protection. VintageSewing.info Definitely worth checking out.

Next time - Raglan sleeves. The heck with physics.

Dropped Sleeves

This sleeve is used often in mens' shirts and women's blouses and dresses. Also casual jackets and coats. Basically what it means is that the seam where the sleeve meets the shoulder is below the natural shoulder, or "dropped."

There are variations on just how far the shoulder is dropped from the natural shoulder point.It may, as in the last sleeve pictured on the Dolman Sleeves post, be flush with the body of the garment and drop as far down as mid bicep. In that case, there is no armhole scooping or sleeve cap at all.

Or, it may only be dropped to high or mid deltoid. These have shallowly scooped armholes and flattened sleeve caps. They require very little easing. Ease of movement is achieved through loose fit and relatively long depth of the armhole opening.

The critical thing to understand from here is this -
As the sleeve/shoulder seam moves upward towards the natural shoulder point, the armhole becomes higher and more scooped out, the cap gets taller to fill in that space, and more ease is needed in the cap.

Viewing the deftly (OK, daftly) drawn renderings below, watch the progression of the armhole and sleeve cap as the seam between them moves closer to the natural shoulder point (represented by the star.)

Remember this one? I couldn't decide if it was kimono, dolman, or dropped. Let's call it dropped today. The simplest form of dropped sleeve, it has no armhole shaping, no sleeve cap, and no ease required.







This is also a very low sleeve but has slight armhole shaping and a slight cap.






Here the top of the sleeve is getting closer yet to the natural shoulder point. There is more of a cap, though still shallow, and a bit more armhole scooping. Also, the base of the armhole is moving upward (getting less deep.)






This one sits just a bit below the natural shoulder point. There is more armhole scooping, and its base is raised further still. There is a taller sleeve cap and some easing will be required.

No longer dropped at all, we come to the traditional set-in sleeve (ta-da) that sits at the natural shoulder point. The cap must be tall...tall enough to go from the base of the armhole to the shoulder point plus enough ease to accommodate the curve of the deltoid.

More on traditional set-in sleeves next post. Oh...and superstring theory. (That's a real thing - I looked it up.)


p.s. I am always on the lookout for fashion drawing classes via PACC or local continuing ed. or...anywhere, really. Honest.

Dolman Sleeve

Dolman Sleeve - A variation of the cut-on kimono sleeve where the sleeve is wider at the body, narrowing towards the wrist. Often, the underarm area is almost bat-like or cape like. Also, the sleeve often angles downward from the shoulder. So...there is some sleeve shaping but still no armhole or sleeve cap.

There is some confusion b/w the dolman sleeve and kimono sleeve. I honestly don't know what "officially" delineates one from the other and I couldn't find a clear answer in my books or online. But in general I think of a kimono sleeve as rectangular and boxy even at the wrist, and found in men's as well as women's wear. A dolman sleeve on the other hand, I picture in women's styles only and as a very drapey, triangular type of look.

Below is a sleeve type I see often on mens casual wear - is it kimono, dolman or something else?

I don't know! But I think I'd describe this sleeve as a "dropped shoulder sleeve" even though there is no cap, no armhole. It's boxy like a kimono sleeve. A bit tapered towards the wrist but not extremely. It is not meant to have drapey folds under the arm. It's a sporty, usually men's style.

More on dropped shoulders next post. Oh, and the basics of particle theory too.

Kimono Sleeve

This is the first in a series on sleeve types. I'm devising a class on advancing sewing skills, and understanding sleeves is crucial.

To fully understand why different sleeve types (and their respective armholes/armscyes) are shaped differently and function differently you will want to compare each post in the series. I'll start at the simplest and progress to the more complex, and as you follow you'll see how the sleeve shape and armholes change in a predictable manner.

The Kimono sleeve is the simplest form of sleeve, and is basically just a rectangle. It may be "cut on" in one piece with the garment body, as the sleeve on the left, below. Or, it may be cut separately and sewn on, as in the sleeve on the right. (The seam is represented by the dotted line.) Cutting the sleeve separately saves a significant amount of fabric. The separately cut sleeve pattern is shown to the right of the kimono garment.Note the stars represent the natural shoulder points. The sleeve/body seam (A-C) is quite a bit further down the arm. In fact, it will probably hit at about mid bicep.

Bodice and sleeve each have to be very loose for this style to work. Length of the arm opening (A-C) must be deep. Freedom of movement is provided by the looseness of the fabric, not the shape of the sleeve.

Note: There is no shaped armhole, no space cut into the body of the garment to accommodate the sleeve. Both pieces are rectangular. There is therefore no sleeve cap and no easing is required in construction. A kimono sleeve is easily attached with a straight seam.

Kimono sleeves are often found on (get this...) kimonos, as well as robes, very boxy jackets and tunics.

Next time - the Dolman sleeve and quantum physics.