09 September 2010

Frankenstein or "when you find yourself in a shirt with one sleeve"

Well. The first sleeve of my shirt has been attached to the body. I think the technical term is "put in." The result is so pathetic that only a picture can really convey it. How can words paint such a travesty as a badly fitting sleeve? The cap seam falling down my arm, the extra fabric from the back pooling sadly behind my shoulder.

Look at all those wrinkles!
The question is, how do I fix it? I'm consistently lazy and able to ignore most cries for more work, but I'm not delusional enough to believe I will actually ever wear this sleeve. On the other hand, if I turn my back on this project how will I ever grow? Sewing is not intuitive for me. I'm not able to visualize how to fix this:


Okay, so I rip out the sleeve seam. Do I then have to redraft the back? Set the sleeve in further from the armhole? The front fits fine (well, the neck is a little too loose, bit that's because the pattern allows for some drape. I'll be taking it in later), so I don't want to change the sleeve placement on that side. Really, the problem seems to be that my shoulders aren't as wide as the pattern assumes. This makes sense. I'm petite, and store bought clothes often don't fit around the shoulders. Would back darts work? I'm already going to take in the waist at the back, should I go ahead and make the whole back smaller? Maybe I should experiment by "fixing" one of my ill-fitting store bought shirts first?


Agh! So many questions! Why can't sewing be as easy as cooking?

Blue cheese burrito. Delicious, quick, and completely intuitive.

1 comment:

  1. First of all, I think it looks just fine, but then years of living with narrow shoulders has me conditioned. Its true your shoulders are not as wide as the pattern assumes. To fix this, I think it would be best to narrow the shoulders and some of the back as well. All this trouble now will be worth it as eventually you'll be able to intuitively whip up a shirt whenever you want!

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