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Shorten RTW Jacket Sleeves Without Removing Them

coudremode — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 12:09:49 +0000

Dance costume season has begun and I’ve been tapped again to do costumes/props for two solos, a duo and the big production routine that has all 56 kids dancing in it. Unlike last year I don’t need to custom make each costume. This year Rennie chose gold polyester gabardine jackets and every dancer, both boys and girls, are all wearing this identical jacket. In large production numbers the size range of the dancers is really broad, there are kids who are only 9 years old and 17-18 year old teenagers already at their adult size. 14 jackets for the Level 2 kids need the sleeves shortened. Removing the sleeves on each jacket was not an option because it would be far too time consuming. So I came up with this method to shorten a sleeve that does not require removing the sleeve from the jacket. It works best for a plain, straight jacket sleeve with no vent.

Step 1: Determine The New Finished Sleeve Length

Have the wearer put on the jacket, button it and stand with their arms straight down in a natural stance. Roll the sleeve to the desired length, turning it under gives a more accurate take on the right length than rolling it up will provide. Align the seam lines and pin the sleeve in place. Do the same thing to the other sleeve as most people have one arm longer than the other.

Step 2: Mark the New Finished Sleeve Length

Leave the pinned sleeves in place. Remove the jacket and measure the length of the underarm seam from the bottom of the armhole to the rolled edge. If the jacket has a two or three piece sleeve measure the seam closest to the bottom of the armhole. Take out the pin and mark this length. The mark at the roll line is now the new finished sleeve edge. From the first mark add another mark 1 ½ inches down towards the open end. The 2^nd mark (which is closer to the original finished sleeve) is the new cutting line. At this stage also remove any buttons or decorative trim that might be on the sleeves.

Step 3: Open Up The Sleeve

Turn the jacket inside out and inspect the sleeve linings. You will probably see on one or both sleeve linings a butted together seam such as the one shown above. RTW jacket linings are inserted with the bag method and this seam is generally the last seam sewn in the factory. Starting about 2 inches below the armhole rip open this seam all the way to the cuff. You may encounter some interior stitches (often in a contrast color usually at the elbow) hidden inside the seam allowances that hold the lining seam allowance to the sleeve seam allowance. Remove these interior stitches as well. Then rip out the stitches attaching the sleeve lining to the sleeve cuff. Pull down the turned up cuff. The whole thing should look as shown below. If you don’t see a butted together lining seam just rip open the seam at the lowest part of the armhole.

Step 4: Shorten The Sleeve

Turn the jacket right side out and pull the lining through the armhole, into the jacket body and out of the way. Measure the distance from the lower mark to the cut edge and carry this mark all the way around the sleeve. Cut off the excess fabric. Pull the lining back down into sleeve and smooth it out to fill the sleeve and cut the excess lining even with the new cut edge of the fashion fabric. Tip: RTW jackets generally have a piece of fusible interfacing at the cuff for a crisp finish and if this was removed when cutting add a new piece to each sleeve.

Step 5: Baste and Re-Sew The Lining To The Sleeve

At this stage the right sides of the sleeve and right side of the lining need to meet and be sewn back together again. The lining seam had to be opened up so that there is enough room to maneuver the fabric. Essentially this stage is sewing a flat piece (the lining) to a tube (the sleeve.)

Turn the jacket inside out, place it on a dress form or hanger and mark where the RS ripped seam matches its corresponding RS sleeve seam. Chalk, a sticker or tape is good, anything will work that clearly indicates the right side from the wrong side. Do the same thing with the other sleeve. This is an important step because the RS lining and RS sleeve must be matched up properly for sewing.

Leave the jacket on the dress form/hanger. Run your arm through the inside-out sleeve to make sure everything is hanging smoothly nothing is twisted (very important!) Turn back the sleeve into a cuff 4-6 inches deep. The right side of the fashion fabric will be facing up on the turn back. For the photos the jacket was placed on a flat surface to better illustrate this step,however, it really is best to work vertically because it helps to prevent twisting.

Find the lining seam edge that corresponds to the underarm seam on the jacket. Fold the lining back to reveal the right side, turn up the sleeve seam allowance and pin it to the right side of the sleeve exactly along its corresponding seam. Slowly work your way around the sleeve, pinning the edges, until you come back to the first pin. Gently pull the sleeve fabric out of the lining a bit more if you need more room to maneuver the edges for pinning (this is why the virtually entire lining seam needs to be ripped open.) Don’t worry about how it looks because as long as the seams were aligned correctly during pinning it will come out right in the end. When you come back to the first pin overlap it with the turned up lining. Thread baste by hand over the pins then remove them. YES you must hand baste! After basting gently turn the sleeve out and put the sleeve on your arm; if you can’t put your arm through the sleeve the lining is twisted. If that happens just remove the thread basting, re-pin and re-baste. Pin basting is possible but if the lining is not aligned correctly with the sleeve and it gets twisted that means you’ll be ripping stitches after sewing. Better to baste, test first and then sew.

Sew the lining to the sleeve with a 1/2 inch seam. Move slowly around the sleeve and rearrange the whole jacket as needed. The hand basting also makes it much easier to maneuver the fabric under the presser foot.

When it’s done push the sleeve out through the lining back to its normal position, butt the sleeve lining edges back together and re-sew the lining seam. If the sleeve does not have a butted lining seam just re-sew it butted together.

Press your new shortened sleeve edge. Re-attach buttons and trim.

A few things to note:

This method work best on a straight sleeve. If the sleeve is very tapered there may not be enough fabric to turn up the new sleeve. This sleeve alteration will also work for a two- or three-piece sleeve however if the sleeve is shortened more than an inch it may affect the drape because the sleeve edge has moved closer to the curve at the elbow. On the jackets that I just altered I’ve had to remove as much as two inches of length for the younger kids because these are adult size jackets, but hey these are dance costumes.

This method doesn’t really work for a vented sleeve because there will not be enough fabric to make a new vent, although I suppose a new faced vent could be added by cutting off the vent piece and moving it up the sleeve. A few jackets had sleeve vents and I just converted them to regular sleeve; again this is a dance costume so they really all need to be the same anyway.

Any questions? Just let me know.

Make a Sleeve Board Cover

coudremode — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:53:12 +0000

The Cover Pattern Traced Off

Finished Sleeve Board Covers - One wool side, one cotton side

A good sleeve board is something every sewer can use; I find them a bit more useful than a sleeve roll. The small one below I’ve had for years and it was okay but not really long enough, strong enough and it was not well padded. Ann went to New York this week and brought me back the type of sleeve board used in sample rooms and on Project Runway – isn’t it great? These are made by Newhouse Specialty Co. and are sold on their web site. The boards are cut from MDO plywood connected with an aluminum bracket, padded on both sides and each has a muslin cover. The cover is sewn to fit tightly over the open end. On the bracket end a casing with a string pulls it tight. The boards are two different widths, one is for shirts and the other is for jackets. I know from experience that these covers don’t last forever because they scorch from the heat and eventually fall apart. So I made new covers to go over the muslin ones. I made a smooth cotton cover for the shirt board and the jacket side has a wool tweed cover. Pressing tools like hams, sleeve boards and seam rolls have two fabric sides for different situations. The cotton side is used for cottons, lines and blends while the wool side is used with wool, silk and heavy steaming because the wool side absorbs moisture and the pressed fabric dries faster. There is no rule that says one side has to be wool and the other cotton really that’s up to you.

Making a cover like this is easy, just remove the original muslin, rip all the stiches out, press it flat and trace it off to make a pattern. Ripping won’t take long because the original cover made at the factory is sewn with really long stiches and it goes fast. Press the muslin cover flat and connect the dots from the original needle holes to mark the seams. The traced off pattern will look like the example at the right.

Padding - it's just taped down

Don’t throw out the original muslin cover! After the pattern is made you’ll stitch it back together and put it back on the board. The fashion fabric cover goes over the original muslin covers.

Materials:

Seam ripper

Cotton string, 20 inches per cover

Fashion Fabric: two 27 x 12 inch remnants of fashion fabric is all you need for each cover and a cross grain or selvage grain layout is fine it doesn’t make any difference. I chose these two fabrics because they look nice together, one is a silk-wool tweed and the other a stretch cotton. The new cover is made exactly like the original the only change is that the center back seam for the fashion fabric cover should be reduced to 5/8 from the original ¾; this little bit of ease will make it easier to pull the fashion fabric cover over the muslin one. Also use a small stitch length on both the fashion fabric cover and the re-sewn muslin.

The process of ripping apart the original cover will pretty much reveal how it goes back together, the steps are these:

Cut out the fashion fabric and clip the four notches as noted on the pattern. The space between the notches is the opening that fits around the aluminum bracket. The area above the notches on the big round end forms the casing for the string. The area below the notches is the t-shaped seam that end fits over the small end of the board.
Fold under the area between the notches to clean finish the bracket opening. Starting at the bottom notch stitch all the way around the big round end folding it to make a casing for the string. Come all the way around to the lowest notch on the other side. Yes, sew from one bottom notch all the way around to the other bottom notch. It’s ok to sew across the top notches as long as you leave enough room to insert the string.
Run the string only through the top notches near the big round end to form the casing.
Fold the fabric rights sides together. Sew the center back seam from the small round end to the first notch. Press this seam open.
Align the rounded cut edges and sew the end seam. Clip this seam to ¼ inch.
Turn the cover to the right side and put both covers, muslin and the fashion fabric, back on the boards. The muslin goes first and the fashion fabric last.

A few hints:

This is not fine sewing and I didn’t bother (and neither did the factory) to finish the edges of the muslin for the bracket opening and the string casing, however the wool tweed was ravelly so I serged those edges before sewing the casing. I didn’t serge any of the edges for the t-shaped seam because that end of the cover fits so tightly to the board there’s no reason to do that.

The final assembly: Pull the covers onto the boards one at a time, muslin first and fashion fabric next. Pull the casing string to tighten it around the wide end of the board. Tie several strong knots and clip any extra string. Steam the fashion fabric at both ends of the board so it’s nice and smooth over the padding. Save the traced off patterns to use again when it’s time to replace the covers after they get scorched and stained from pressing; The length of time they last depends on how much you sew, mine last about 2 years.

Enjoy your fab new sleeve board covers!

A Public Service Video – How To Iron A Shirt

coudremode — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:34:19 +0000

Since the holidays are upon us, this video may come in handy if you can’t get to the cleaners. The only thing I do differently is the collar and sleeves are done first to keep wrinkling down as much as possible on the body of the shirt. I also like to use a silk organza press cloth, a hot iron and lots of steam and spray starch.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkdKZHdMQGU]

Hot Patterns Sportive Skirt: Version 2

coudremode — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 17:49:35 +0000

I thought you might like to see who I work out embellishment ideas.

This version of the Sportive Skirt is a wearable muslin, which I don’t usually do, but this is an embellishment experiment rather than a fit experiment, and I’ve already done 3 versions of this style anyway (2 Hot Patterns Sportive Skirts, and one Trouser Skirt; they share the same sloper.)

There’s no lining on this denim version, and I wanted to finish the cut end of the (too long) zipper. The red stitching is decorative, and also holds the outside edge of the invisible zipper tape to the seam allowance. There’s a small piece of leather to finish off the cut end of the zipper (I always shorten coil zippers from the bottom and finish the end this way, or with a dab from a glue gun. I shorten molded zippers from the top by pulling off the extra teeth with a pair of pliers.)

The hem is finished off with Petersham because I decided the cut length is where I like the hem, so I had to make a faux hem of some sort. Lace was my initial choice, but I didn’t have any in brown, so I thought I’d go sporty with the Petersham.

This fabric not super high quality or special, and I used iit for the wearable muslin only to test the embellishment. The fabric I really want for this skirt is a stunning dark wash stretch denim that I need to retrieve from Ann. I’ll refine these interior embellishments on that version.

This was a fun experiment. The ideas are good and the colors just need to be worked out a bit more.

Beaded Tassel Tutorial

coudremode — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 10:20:00 +0000

Beaded Tassel Tutorial

I first made these as a fastening for a Chanel-like cardigan. These tassels are not hard to make, although the work is a little fussy, but if you like making jewelry you’ll probably enjoy this.

The finished tassel is about 2 3/4 inches long, and the top loop is 2 inches (50 beads for mine.) If you plan to use the tassel for earrings, or to embellish a zipper on a handbag, then you can adjust the length of the loop accordingly.

Materials List

Nymo beading thread, fine. Use black Nymo for opaque beads, white for crystal & clear beads . Regular sewing thread is not strong enough for this type of beading.
Beading needles (I used J & P Coats H.16, size 10/13)

Naturally, for the beads you can use whatever you like, but I’ll give you the bead sizes I used as a guide:

One 10mm faceted bead for the tassel head
One 6mm disc-shaped bead for the neck

Each strand of the skirt contains:

16 seed beads of one color
2 seed beads of another color as a transition
1 bugle bead that coordinate with the 2 transition beads
1 4mm bicone bead
1 Czech E-bead (a bead the same shape as a seed bead, but larger)
1 dangle (usually side drilled) or teardrop bead (usually top drilled) for the end

Each tassel has 6 strands in the skirt. If you use a top drilled bead for the end of each skirt strand you will need an additional seed bead as a stopper.

Step 1:

Cut a piece of Nymo 5 feet long. Each tassel uses one continuous strand of thread, looped back and forth through the beads. It’s really important to have more than enough thread to complete one tassel because if you run out of thread and try to tie onto a strand to complete the skirt, you will compromise the strength of the finished tassel.

The first step works from the bottom up and you’ll create one skirt strand, and then continue with the neck bead, the head bead, and the top loop. String your dangle or tear drop with a single strand of Nymo, then double the strand, re-thread the needle, and string the skirt strand beads on the doubled thread. Add the neck bead, head bead, and the beads for the loop. When the loop islong enough, create the loop and bring the thread back down through the head bead and the neck bead.

It should look like this:

You now have one skirt strand and the top parts of the tassel are formed. Unthread the needle. You will now use each of the two separate threads to create the rest of the skirt strands.

Step 2:

This is an important step to understand: from this point onwards, you will string each skirt strand from the top down to the dangle (the original skirt strand was done bottom up in order make the neck, head and loop of the tassel)

Thread the needle and string on that single strand: 16 seed beads, 2 transition beads, the bugle bead, the bicone, the Czech e-bead, and the dangle or teardrop. After you attach the dangle or teardrop (with teardrops you will need to use a single seed bead below it as a stopper) thread through the entire strand again from the bottom up, catching every bead:

When you get to the neck and head beads, run the thread through those as well, snug the strand to the neck bead, and bring the needle out at the top of the head bead. Wrap the beading thread around the bottom of the loop where the last two loop beads touch the head bead, and bring the thread back down the thorough the head and neck beeads.

Unthread the needle, and separate the two strands of thread. Rethread the needle again as a single strand an continue as before, making another strand of the skirt. After you use up one piece of thread, go to the other piece and finish the skirt. You should be able to do 3 skirt strands on one piece of thread, and 3 on the other.

Step 3:

After all six skirt strands are complete, go through and wrap around the head bead one last time, but bring the needle out between the head bead and the neck bead. Run the needle horizontally through the many strands of thread, make a loop, and pull a tight knot. Then run the thread down thought the neck bead and through at least 6 beads in a skirt strand, and cut off the thread. This last step, of running the end piece of thread through a skirt strand, is actually very important because it prevents the knot from coming undone.

You’re done!

Pressing Matters

coudremode — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 05:53:00 +0000

Diva Ann, who is on a scuba vacation with her family this week, has an excellent article in the latest issue of Threads that every sewer needs to read. It’s about proper pressing during construction, which is a subject completely different from ironing. For truly professional results, you must really spend as much time at with your iron as you do with your sewing machine. Trust me, seeing a well-made but unpressed garment just drives the Divas crazy – all six of us agree that pressing is an essential sewing skill.

In addition to the article, you can watch watch and download a video podcast of Ann demonstrating the techniques she writes about in her article.

Press On!

Simplicity 4124 – The Embellishment, Part II

coudremode — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 08:40:00 +0000

The catch stitching secures the pressed back seam allowance at both the outer edge and the shoulder seams. The neckline seam is not folded back because that seam will be attached by machine.

The hardest thing about embellishment is getting started – and also knowing when to stop! After I finish up the beading I’ll blog the rest of the construction process.

Simplicity 4124 – The Embellishment, Part I

coudremode — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 01:53:00 +0000

The embellishment that I wanted to do on this pattern meant that the construction process had to be changed. The instructions say to stitch the placket to the front, and then attach the placket facing to the inside. I reversed this for a couple of reasons, (1) I wanted the placket edges to be crisp and even. It’s just about impossible to get this with machine stitching, and (2) The placket had to be easy to handle so I could add the passementarie, rat tail cord and beading.

The first step was to create a placket template from a manila envelope (no seam allowances.) The template was used to form a clean edge. A piece of silk organza is placed underneath the fashion fabric and I pulled it up to fold back the seam allowance. The placket is interfaced to with a light knit fusible because it needs to be perfectly stable for the heavy embellishment. The interfacing goes to the edge on the neckline edge, but stops inside the seam allowance on the outside edge.

The next step is to catch stitch the fold backed seam allowance all along the outer edge of the placket. The black fabric is wool felt, which is needed as a backing. This is part of Kenneth’s original technique. After the edges were catch stitched I lightly pressed and steamed the placket again, and then added the passementarie trim and rat tail cord.

Lace Secrets

coudremode — Sun, 07 May 2006 13:43:00 +0000

by Diva Phyllis

I started that Simplicity tunic this weekend, and then yesterday in the mail I finally got some vintage black rayon Chantilly border lace that I bought on eBay from Christina’s Goodies ‘N Things.

Christina sells wonderful vintage trims collected over the years from NY-NJ factories that closed decades ago. She adds new items all the time, and when she clears out her inventory that’s it. I bought about 11 yards of lace for $13 (including shipping.) She has high quality goods and you won’t find trims like this in modern fabric stores.

So – what did I do with this lace? Used it to trim the lining of my HotPatterns Classic Nouveau Trouser Skirt:

One of the reasons I love to sew is being able to add my own touchs to garments – no one other than me (and well – now you!) knows about this fun detail.

This skirt, BTW – belongs in every woman’s closet! I had a skirt like this years ago that I loved so much I wore it till it fell apart. This is a true workhorse pattern, and here’s the review I did on Pattern Review.