Red coat part 4 Sleeve insertion and book recommendation

It is worth getting the sleeves inserted well, a poorly inserted sleeve shouts home made to me! 

When the  long under sleeve seam is stitched, the seam needs pressing open and then an extra press on the right side with the clapper to get a flat sleeve seam. The sleeve board is useful for this, but a sleeve pressing roll could be used instead. 

Now to prepare the sleeve for a perfect fit in the armhole. Time taken on the preparation of the sleeve fit  will pay dividends. I make 2 rows of machine stitching, I used stitch size 4, one just inside the stitching line and one about 1/4 inch further to the edge . These 2 rows reach between the two small circles marked on a pattern around the top of the sleeve and bodice pattern pieces. 

I then measure the length this needs to be around the front and back bodice separately and pull up the threads around the sleeve top to match, distributing any small gathers evenly. It is essential to measure the back and front of the sleeves separately so the shoulder seam will sit at the centre mark of the sleeve so the sleeve hangs correctly when inserted. 

Before steam 

Now the gathers can be ‘shrunk away’ before they go near the armhole. I have found this works brilliantly. I use my ‘wet Handkerchief’ technique to get plenty of steam and then use the tip of the iron over a silk pressing cloth using the ham to shape the sleeve over. 

After steaming it will look like this 

And when in the coat like this, ie no gathers at all. 

Once the sleeve has been inserted I trim the seam allowance back and then stitch all round with a zig zag stitch  on the main sewing machine. To me, this is safer than using the overlocker and blade there! 

The bottom of the sleeve can be tacked up and given the normal double press. At this stage I do not stitch it. 

The sleeve  lining can be made ready for insertion, ie the long sleeve seam stitched and pressed open. 

The sleeve lining length is then calculated, it needs to join the bottom of the sleeve about 2 cm up from the sleeve edge on the Harris Tweed that is turned up. I found it useful to pull the actual  sleeve inside out and use a coloured thread to tack on this 2 cm line.  I then use  a different colour to tack on what will be the bottom edge of the lining (ie 2 cm shorter than the sleeve seam length.  Once these tacking lines are matched up, they can be pinned at right angles to the edge and then a line of machine stitching is made to join the lining and the sleeve. If you have not done this before, I suggest a ‘dry run’! Once stitched and trimmed the lining and sleeve are pulled through so the sleeve is the right way out and a very net line is made, no stitching showing, for the junction  with the lining. In this way there is no hem stitching needed for the sleeve. 

At this stage do not stitch  the lining to the armhole yet. 

The other book I always  use when constructing a jacket or coat is this one by Claire Shaeffer. 

It covers:

A particularly useful section is on p 142-3 and I made the sleeve rolls / heads based on this 

sleeve head in construction and ready to insert  

 

These are working well in the coat. (I often make a smaller one for a dress and on occasion a blouse as they work so well supporting the sleeve.)

The sleeve heads can be inserted at any point from now on