Red, boiled wool jacket

It's funny how, even after 30 years of sewing and many of those years realizing that sleeves aren't so hard, I still put off making sleeves because they used to be difficult.

With a fully lined jacket, there are FOUR sleeves! And these are slightly different, in that they have a pleat at the top and a clip on the sides. Halfway between the top of the shoulder and the notch, there is a spot where you sew a retaining line of stitching and then you clip in almost 5/8 of an inch to the small dot. When you split the fabric at the clip, it makes for a square spot on the outside on the finished sleeve.

I haven't pressed this sleeve, nor have I unpicked the basting for the pleat, but you can see where the seam goes square on the front there.

Here's what the back looks like, before the sleeves were put on. So cute with the pleats! And you can see I have marked with white thread, the small dots on the sleeve seam allowance, where they will be clipped for that square spot.

I decided to use the wool yoke in the back for warmth but I also put the lining fabric over it, for a uniform inside, non-stick finish, as well as additional warmth.

Here's the lining all put together. There is no extra band on the inside, like there is on the finished back outside. Now I "just" have to put the outside and the lining together!

Linen outfit, jacket

The sleeves are on!

After I sewed them on, I finished that seam with bias tape. It was kind of fiddly work. There were places along the seam where the fabric was several layers thick (at the back yoke seams) where I had to pin the bias to the inside and then pin it around the outside too. With pins on the upper and lower sides of the seam as it is feeding through the sewing machine, you have to go slowly and carefully so as not to jam your needle on all those pins, or catch the pins under the plate where the feed dogs are. (That unfinished looking seam on the above photo is the zigzagged one inside the sleeve.)

It doesn't look too beautiful but it is on the inside of the jacket and won't be seen except as a flash when I take the jacket off.

Somebody asked in a previous comment if I'd lengthened the jacket (no) and if the back was longer than the front (also no). This photo sort of shows that the jacket is the same length all around. (The blue top on Pinky isn't on straight.) And the jacket is pretty short - it will just stop at my waist when hemmed - but that's the style so I didn't change the length.

Here's the front with sleeves. I have turned one up just to see what it might look like because of the V detail on the bottom of the 3/4 sleeve.

Here it is from the back, with one sleeve turned up. The pattern doesn't call for any turning up of the sleeves but I didn't shorten them when I made them and they are a tad longish. Next time I make this, I will shorten the sleeve pattern piece by about 3/4 of an inch. My arms are not weirdly short and they don't look funny but I usually have to take up regular length sleeves and I wondered what would happen with the 3/4 sleeve if I didn't take it up, since it was short to begin with. It's all about proportion.

Linen outfit, getting on with the sewing

Things are proceeding apace. Everything is cut out and things are going together.

Although I knew the jacket was unlined, it wasn't until I started sewing the two pieces of the sleeves together that I realized, it was unlined! The instructions call for using seam binding in the body of the jacket and there is a yoke and yoke facing but there is no call for finishing the raw edges of the sleeve seams. So I zigzag stitched the seams I'd already sewed, which made me think, I'd better zigzag the raw edges of the skirt as well. Normally, I do a flat fell of some sort but I don't think it will lend itself to this fabric.

Speaking of fabric, is linen ever nice and easy to sew. It doesn't move around or bunch up and it's not hard to puncture. It may wrinkle when you wear it but it's very pleasant to work with in the meantime. Above are the yoke and the yoke facing. I deliberately cut the facing into the non-embroidered area at the selvage so I would have less embroidery on the inside of the jacket. Not that it matters but I liked the idea of it.

The sleeves are 3/4 length with a V shape on the finished edge. In the instructions, it just says "sew hem in place" but since I dislike an unfinished raw edge, I decided to use some seam binding here.

I pinned the double-fold bias seam binding to the raw edge and stitched it on by machine, using a "fancy" stitch that did a zigzag every fourth stitch, just to be sure that I was catching the binding on the underside.

Here are the sleeves, wrong-side and right-side out. I hand sewed the hems up.

I also hand stitched the interfacing down the fold line on the jacket fronts. I chose sew-in interfacing because the pattern recommended it but also because I thought it would be best, given the natural fabric. I haven't decided yet if I will do any top stitching. The pattern doesn't call for it but sometimes, it gives a little more structure to the garment.

A Sleeve

June 12
I've got hung up with a job interview (full time teaching instead of just part time - the interview went well as far as I am concerned but you never know with these things) and gearing up to work at the Habitat for Humanity "Women Build" here near Ottawa. I had to take a safety course in preventing falls last night but it was fun and I learned a lot. Tomorrow I have to show up at the site at 7 in the morning, complete with steel-toed-full-steel-shank boots and a tool belt. I'm ready! Too bad I have to take two buses to get there. In the meanwhile, my sewing languishes.

I promised a reader a clapper tutorial and will write it up tomorrow (after working construction for the day!) but in the meantime, here is a photo of how I set the sleeves in on most garments. I rarely baste and prefer instead to use as many pins as I can possibly stick in the fabric.

In the other meantime, we are ordering a tandem to celebrate out 25th anniversary and while not occupying actual minutes of sewing time, does preoccupy me. Where shall we go first!?