McCalls 7542 - The Sleeves

I'm working with McCalls 7542.  Since we all know that patterns don't fit us right out of the envelope, I needed to make several changes to the pattern to make elements of it work for me. For me the sleeve is where I needed to make the most changes, especially since its the sleeve that's the focus of this pattern and my garment.

Normally I share all pattern information in the post containing the finished garment and write a separate post about the technique later. This time though if I couldn't get the sleeves to work, there would be no outfit. So I did something I don't normally do or rarely do. I made a sample.

See I always alter my sleeves for my bodacious biceps. Unless I'm using a Cashmerette Pattern, I need to make this pattern alteration EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. I've developed various techniques to deal with this depending on the type of sleeve I'm using. Since this is a short sleeve with the ruffle added to the bottom of it, I made a pattern sandwich using my TNT short sleeve, the McCalls sleeve pattern and tracing paper to make a new sleeve.

After I had a sleeve that worked for my biceps, my next concern was making sure the hole in the pattern would fit the hemline of my new sleeve. I measured the cutting line and it was too small. Then I measured the stitching line and it was too small. So I added 1/4" all the way around the stitching line seam and used that for my new cutting line.

I made a sample from a cotton shirting that I had on hand using the sleeve from View B.

...and it worked! I can't believe that it worked...or that I took the pictures with the timer on my iPad! *LOL*

Yeah that's how I look when I'm working in the sewing cave! And yes, I took the time to serge finish the upper and lower sleeve parts. Hey I might want to put it into a shirt or a tunic some day!

Anyway that's how I made my sleeve sample work using McCalls 7542 for the next garment up on the blog!

...as always more later!