Classic Blouse Set-In Sleeve

The patterns I worked with yesterday were designed using Pattern Master Boutique software and the classic blouse, set in sleeve, options. I already knew that the basic shape was correct. My focus was on the armhole and sleeves. All in all, I sewed four muslins with sometimes subtle, and sometimes not, variations. As I made each choice in the software, the changes were reflected in the onscreen diagram. I'm intrigued by what affects what - and everything does. For instance...

If I shortened the shoulder length, the narrowing happened at the neck and not at the sleeve edge. The sleeve edge is affected by the front and back shoulder widths. Shortening the back shoulder width removed the excess that has been bothering me with commercial patterns.

I also needed to click the armhole edge toward center. I discovered that I have a narrow back and that the line of the armhole must come straight down, even curve toward center, rather than curve outward as I showed you in the illustration yesterday. The same is true in the front. That's why that method of narrowing the shoulder wasn't working for me. I have narrow shoulders and a narrow back and upper chest.




I also have a small neck which makes sense with the above. Most patterns are drafted for 13" neck and mine is 12 1/2". The half inch is distributed around the front so on a commercial pattern, I would need to pinch out about 1/4" on each side. This explains only in part some of the wrinkles from shoulder to neck point. See how they are worse on my right side (left of picture)?
Notice how my neck doesn't sit centered in the neck opening?

I have much larger muscles on the right side of my neck. To fit the neck extremely well, I would need a template for both the left and right sides as well as for any collar or collar stand. Hmm.... I don't want to fit the neck extremely well. It'd have to be a lot worse than this for me to do all that work. I do however want to explore the forward shoulder adjustment a bit more and see if I need to shift the shoulder seam slightly




This picture does NOT reflect drafting the armhole straighter and toward center. I worked on that issue after this photo was taken. It does reflect two different sleeves. From the front, the cap of the one picture left is smooth but the arm is twisted while on the one picture right there is more ease (and puckering) around the cap and the arm is straight. You can see this individually below.




This is the sleeve drafted by the software for the armhole. It's "as is". The line drawn across the bicep curves upward, the bottom twists, and it looks strained. The only thing wonderful is the smooth sewing around the cap.




This sleeve hangs straight. The hem gets even nicer if I pin a bit of that excess behind the sleeve cap toward the back mimicking straightening the armhole even more like I talked about above. In order to get this higher sleeve cap, I had to accept a lot more ease. That was interesting learning. When you add ease, the cap gets higher and when you decrease ease, the cap gets lower and there is a point at which lower affects the hang of the sleeve. The lower the cap, the more folds in the sleeve.

The armhole of the garment above was drafted with one set of measurements and the sleeve was drafted with another. The difference was the bicep width. My actual is 13. If I draft using 13 and want to get a higher sleeve cap, the software will only give me a higher, narrower cap in a sleeve with a narrower bicep. I could barely get it on.

To get a high, wide cap, I had to trick the software saying my bicep was 16. I did that ONLY when designing the sleeve otherwise the armhole gets bigger than I want. It's a bet tedious and back and forth with onscreen measuring to make sure I'm going in the right direction but even so, it is quicker than manual drafting and I can see if what I'm trying to achieve is actually happening. At the end of the day, I had learned or confirmed that:

... my neck requires a smaller neck opening and...
... I don't want to fidget with a two sided neck
... I have a narrow back and upper chest with a fuller bust
... moving the side seam forward an inch is valid
... my bust point is where I think it is
... the shape of the armhole must curve toward center front or center back before scooping around. It's a J with a curve on the stem.
... my armhole depth is 7" and taking a 1" petite adjustment in commercial patterns is valid
... the correct armhole depth eliminates a lot of excess under the arm and...
... shortening the armhole means I no longer have to worry about a sway back or high hip adjustment because the waist is raised to the proper location
... that I need both a high and wide sleeve cap to smoothly fit my arm and that too narrow of a sleeve doesn't do me any favours. This means NOT adjusting the cap of the commercial pattern even though I took a petite adjsutment through the armhole.
... that to get a nicely hanging sleeve, I may have to work with more ease than I'd prefer
... that I'll continue to fine tune this sleeve

In case you think this took hours and hours, it didn't. The muslins I sew are quick and dirty. I mark what I need to know with a permanent marker and then sew in a well learned order. One muslin takes no more than an hour from printing the pattern to trying it on. I sewed one during the commercials while watching Oprah. It takes more time to write notes, analyze, research possibilities, and play with the software.

This morning, I want to go over my notes and make sure I'm clear about how I achieved the best results. From there, I'll fine tune that sleeve a bit more and then create the armhole and sleeve templates. Once those are ready, I'll show you how I plan to work with them on a commercial pattern and sew a blouse to see if I get the results I'm hoping to get. LOL - please!

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - increased understanding of my sleeve "issues" - the hope of better results

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Personal Growth - Oprah's current issue is a ten year celebration of the magazine. In it Bob Greene, Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, Suze Orman, Nate Burkus and others list the top ten things they have learned and think will improve our lives. The lists are interesting. They give you something to think about from using the china to showing up in your own life.

When I think about writing a top ten list, I think about having a passion and exploring it fully, about having an active mind in pursuit of ongoing learning and personal development, and about learning to know, like, respect, and forgive myself so that I can know, like, respect, and forgive others. Life is all about relationships starting with the one that I have with myself. Being my best me and my own best friend (MYOBF) will ripple out to a better world even if it's just in my small corner.