dressdressdressdressdress

[taimatsu]

Oh God.

Okay, I have done a lot of sewing. The main body of the dress is DONE - bodice top, with hand-affixed invisible hook and eye fastenings, and a wrap skirt that attaches at waist on one side, shoulder on the other, is fixed in the middle of the back and has a fold sewn in to make it hang properly. So far, so good. Just the buttons and loops at the attachment points required to make it a wearable summer dress.

Sleeves, however - Not Happening. Oh so not happening. I began one, and it nearly worked, but without a pattern I cannot get the head of the sleeve (the top curve) to fit right at the armhole. Even with three pieces of under-arm gusset it's not working right, and I can't face fighting it for another hour only to have it rip apart sometime tomorrow night when I try stretching, or hitting something. I am going to do a little online hunting to see what instructions or advice I can come up with, but I have a feeling it's just not going to work out. Perhaps if I measure the armhole and mess around with the remainder of the fabric...

As for the leggings - don't make me laugh. I might produce a skinnier pair of wrap pants to wear under this, but I doubt it will happen.

But the dress itself looks really good, just how I wanted it :) I could just wear it and be cold...

Comments

[nevecat.livejournal.com]

Sleeves are a pain to do right, they're deceptively shaped.

You *roughly* want a shape like this:

         TOP (ie folded)
      --------------.
      z              |
      z              |
      z             /
      z           /
      z         /
      z        /
      z       |
      z       |
      --------
  BOTTOM (ie seam)

(z = cutoff from diagram, no need to draw whole length of sleeve!)

with the total length of the seams obviously corresponding to the

       ---------------
       \
        \
         \
          |
          |
          |
          |
          |
          |
         /
        /
       /
      /
      |
      | 

curve of the 'armhole'.

Find an existing top you have and mock out with paper/scraps to see how it goes together - the widest part of the curve fits over the shoulder, the narrowest draws in for the underarm.

IN fact, if you have a similar cut top of similar fabric, you should be able to use it as a pattern properly...

(let's see if this formats right)

[taimatsu]

Yeah - I did set-in sleeves for Robert once and chopped up one of his shirts to use as a pattern, so I know vaguely what I ought to do. I just didn't do it :)

Thanks for the above, it has clarified my thinking.

Why aren't you in bed?! :)

[damianobf.livejournal.com]

Pattern I tend to use has a dome at the top..

Can't think hwo to draw it at the moment but Lucy if you want me to scetch some sleeve patterns out for you and send them to you for in future I can.

We've got several books with them in and if I can manage to make a sleeve pattern from directions esther gave me once in a letter I am sure you can.