Armhole Templates: The Tank

In the back of my mind, while I've been finishing other things, I've been thinking about the armhole and sleeve on the McCall's blouse I want to sew next. That's why it's been taking so long. In particular, I've been wondering if the tuck that forms from the armhole toward my neck is less about my shoulders and more about armhole depth so I've been researching armholes and sleeves. 

In the process, I've re-discovered Silhouette Patterns webcasts and YouTube videos. Peggy - who owns Silhouette Patterns - is an incredibly wealth of knowledge. I always learn something from her even if I don't always do my alterations exactly her way. There are so many ways to do the same adjustment and that's part of the journey, finding the way that works for us. 

In the case of the armhole, Peggy talks about how we have four armholes - the tank top, the t-shirt, the blouse, and the jacket. Each has slightly more ease for movement or - as in the case of the jacket - to accommodate a shoulder pad. Once you have identified your armhole(s) and developed the accompanying sleeves, they can be drawn onto interchangeable templates and used pattern to pattern. 

I am just under 5'4" so right on the line between petite and regular sizing. More of that height is in my legs which means I can wear petite tops but not petite bottoms. I notice this petite-ness the most in my armhole depth which is shorter than regular drafting. Even though that's something I had already worked through and tested in the past, I feel like I went past perfect and over-tweaked the fit of my armholes and sleeves so now I want to start from scratch, forget what I think I know, and re-develop each of my armholes. 

Peggy suggests starting with a garment in your closet that you really like the fit of and then copying it. This presumes you have such a garment especially as she was mostly referring to RTW which I have little of. I did buy one RTW t-shirt right after the closet clear out and had noticed that the sleeves fit quite well except for the shoulder point. I decided to start there. On Sunday, I pinned a tuck so the shoulder seam would sit in the correct spot and then spent the entire day - literally - wearing this pinned tuck. It was comfortable all day long so I this RTW t-shirt will become part of my research.

M7407 has been in my to sew que for a while so I decided to use it to develop the tank armhole. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough of a sacrificial fabric to make the dress, so I made the shorter top. I cut out the pattern with no alterations, sewed the center front and center back seams, pinned the shoulders and tried it on. Yes. I did need to raise the armhole depth 1" just as I had discovered before. 

After sewing that adjustment, I tried on the top to determine where the shoulder point should be as indicated by the pin in the image above. This is 1 1/4" in from the raw edge or an additional 5/8" toward the neck. I have narrow shoulders. 

After marking the shoulder point on the wrong side of the garment, I pinned both armholes right sides together, used a French curve to draft a new line from the original underarm to the new shoulder point, and trimmed off the excess. Because I want to wrap this edge with binding, there is no seam allowance. 

In this image, you can see that the armhole is sitting on my shoulder point and that the shoulder length is correct. You can also see that the armhole is still too deep allowing that lovely little bit of pudge that most of us have to show. That always makes me uncomfortable and is one of the reasons why I prefer a higher armhole on a tank top. 

On the mannequin, I pinned the seamline straight against the body and when I tried it on, it covered the underarm in the way that I prefer. The shape looks like "my" armhole which is one of the lovely things about having sewn for so long. I recognize both when the shape is off or when it looks right for me. 

Here is the finished top. It feels like too much fabric on me so I might prefer the dress length only I would want it longer than the pattern and once I'd added the extra length, it would be a tremendous amount of fabric and could possibly look like a tent - narrow at the top, ever widening to the bottom. With that in mind, unless I find exactly the right fabric at an excellent price, I doubt I'll sew this again but I will test the armhole shape on another tank top before moving on to the next armhole, the t-shirt. 

Do you enjoy perfecting fit or do you find it frustrating? What is your favourite resource?

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - that I enjoy the journey of getting good fit and then being able to use the resulting templates to be more creative with my clothing.