Sleeves

Well, here we are, back after the Easter break with three days of class until the next 4 day weekend bars us from studio and tutor alike once more.

Having had our fittings during the break, we have now to adjust the suits as necessary and to finish them.   One small problem we have at the moment is lining fabric that has gone AWOL.  Without the lining we cannot start even doing things like pockets (of which there are two in the trousers, three in the jacket and four in the waistcoat) which need to be done before we can put in facings, and, well, you can’t line something if you don’t have lining!  So, I am down to moving sleeve settings and spreading out my seam allowance.

I had some trouble putting my sleeve in, in the first place.  Having been instructed to allow for some ease in the upper sleeve drafting, I was finding it almost impossible to squeeze in even the minimum suggested.  There is, apparently, nothing straightforwardly easy about easing!  Maybe it comes with practice, though, as many things similar to this do.

So, I had pinned the sleeve in place, adjusting the seam on both the sleeve itself and also at the join between the sleeve and the jacket, pulling it over a little, into the body.  The challenge here, now, is to cut and place the top-fabric sleeves well enough.

It’s not quite ‘wearing my heart on my shirt sleeves’, but ‘wearing my checks on my jacket sleeves’ has equal possibilities for becoming a moralistic saying...