Armhole finishing/linen blouse

Dear Sharon,

You can bind the edges with bias-cut pieces of self fabric. This is my preferred finish, and I use it all the time. You can also make armhole facings. You can make your own if you don't have patterns. Pin the shoulder patterns together, front and back, and trace the outside edge. Measure out 2-1/2 inches along the tracing to make the facing the correct width. Sew the underarm seams, and with right sides together, sew the facings to the garment. Trim to 1/8 inch. With all of the seam allowances facing towards the facing, zigzag over the seams from the outside right next to the seam. This will hold the layers together, and keep them from rolling out when the garment is worn.

You can see why I prefer the binding method--easier and classier.

Teri

You can zig-zag the finished seam, but test on scraps to see if it stands up to washing, etc.

Or, you can sew the armhole seam in a French seam, it's tricky but can be done. That's assuming you are making a blouse with a sleeve.

Or, you can buy (or make from your fabric if you have enough) double-fold bias tape and enclose the entire seam in a "Hong Kong" finish, and that works for either a sleeveless or sleeved garment. Sorry, I an find my link to instructions, but if you know how to apply bias binding, it's basically the same, just allow for the curved edge.

HTH,

Beverly

For a blouse with sleeves, I'd either fell the armscye seam or french seam it (easiest if you serge the first "sewing" of the seam -- but you can easily do it with a zigzag). I prefer felling.

For a sleeveless blouse, I'd bind with bias, either self-fabric or matching "lining weight", or do facings if appropriate. A lot of the time, I cut the armhole and neckline facings "all in one", shape the outside edges to an interesting shape and turn them to the outside as a decorative element.

If you're feeling rusty, check to see if your library has a copy of Carol Ahles' Fine Machine Sewing... it's a good refresher course and she's got some excellent techniques there.

Kay

I used to set the sleeves in DH's shirts in with french seams, and they weren't the least bit of trouble. Of course, that was shirt-type sleeves; dress-type sleeves might be harder.

I thought the first seam would be impossible, because the curves make the longer edge longer and the shorter edge shorter, but apparently the narrowness of the allowance to be squished made up for this; at any rate, it eased right in, with no more trouble than perma-press fabric usually gave me. (I was using french seams throughout because the perma-press available at the time perma-puckered if top-stitched.) Nowadays, I use pre-graded flat-felled seams for everything -- though I'll hand-topstitch formal silks. And I used french seams on the outside when making my pocket wallet.

David Coffin's _Shirtmaking_ has a good description of setting in a sleeve with pre-graded flat-fell seams, but he uses 5/8" allowances and lets them overlap a quarter inch; I use 1/2" allowances and let the raw edges meet, which is easier to measure and makes the seam flatter. I don't adjust the allowances as he does either; what one allowance gains the other allowance loses; even if you wobble a bit or guesstimate your widths, the plain-seam stitching lines meet exactly, and lie between the two rows of top-stitching.

On a fine linen blouse, I would hand-stitch the fell and have no top stitching. Shortest-possible running stitches near the fold of the fell are as invisible as "blind" hemming, and hold a lot better.

Joy Beeson

I love making shirts out of linen! I even found tablecloths at Target for 75% off, and have dyed some to sew clothes. I've done the french seam on the sleeve seam by attaching the sleeve, then sewing the sideseam. (All of the ladies dress shirts I've altered recently are constructed this way.) Another option is to sew a regular seam, trim the SA on the body side, then wrap the larger SA around the trimmed one and top stitch to secure. I know there's a name for this, but I haven't had enough coffee yet and I'm not in my studio to check a reference book.

Happy sewing!

Juliette

snipped-for-privacy@comcast.net wrote:

Thank you everyone. I did forget to mention, the blouse has sleeves (have that bat wing underarm thing going on since I just lost 40 lbs., hence the resurgence in sewing). Thanks for all the suggestions- they will be extremely helpful. Sharon

Congratulations! I'm in a similar boat - two sizes down from where I was last summer, and now I desperately need more clothing want to spend time fitting this shape :o)

-Liz

Don't get *too* fussy about fitting the new interim shape! The batwings reduce, and as you get fitter the shape changes!

Well done both of you! I'm about 3 lbs up on my total loss (70 lbs! Eek! A third of my body weight!), but my waist and hips are slimmer than before Christmas, as I've been swimming a lot and the shape is changing... :)

Wow, that's awsome! I know what you mean about the shape changing

I've been down 30 total (which was my goal) since late Dec although My 10th anniversary celebrations have resulted in bit of a setback lately . Call it a steady weight for about 6 months, but my figure is still mutating. My sport of choice has been figure skating, and boy does that change the profile from the rear view - curvy in the right way . I'm going to try fitting trousers this year, which I've never done before. Maybe make my own jeans.

-Liz

You'll have LEG MUSCLES! Yay! :D

Jeans sound like a neat ambition. :)

Batwings for Everyone! (kidding, kidding) Lost 35 since xmas, and have 50 to go (lbs). Just finished an outrageously loud paisley sheath dress from an old pattern. It is so nice to just be able to cut on the lines and not fool around with adding width past the largest size on the multi-pattern! And I don't even care if I never use the pattern again, as the next time I'll have time for sewing it will be enough too big that I'll just use a different pattern. My exercises of choice are walking, bicycling. Have just added incline pushups (no 'real' ones yet - still not strong enough!) and those horrible exercises often called triceps dips which should tone up my batwings a bit.

liz young in sunny california

I walk everywhere I can and swim twice a week at least... I'm up to 50 lengths of the indoor pool in an hour on a good day! Ever so good for the batwings! :D

Wish I liked swimming. I learned just enough to be allowed to take the canoe out w/out actually wearing the lifejacket (paddle by self, dump canoe, swamp canoe, get back in canoe, get canoe and self back to shore, tread water for some length of time, demonstrate floating ability - my dad's rules).

liz young in sunny california (nowhere near a beach)

I don't wish I liked swimming, because I have almost drowned twice, and they say third time's a charm.

I forced myself to take swimming lessons until I got to the point where if I was in water where I couldn't solidly touch the ground and have my entire head above wanted I can tread water and *not* panic. After that, I don't need to do anything else.

I can float. I'm very buoyant. I can sort of swim, but it's faster to just wait for the edge of the pool to come by than it is to try to swim to it. ;-)

As a kid growing up I didn't realize that there were adults who couldn't swim - properly! Both my parents learned in the Firth of Fourth as kids... Mad, I tell you! It's a mixture of snow melt from the Highlands and North sea! I learned in the Med as a kid when we lived in Malta. My dad's rule was no fins, goggles, or snorkel until we could swim 50 yards on top or 20 under water (and in the Med that under water bit takes real EFFORT!). I was the slowest of the four of us to learn, but, starting at Easter, I'd got there by the school summer holidays in July. Little Sis (a tad more than two when we arrived the October before) had hers before her third birthday. We all swam like fishes after that first summer.

I insisted strongly that James learned to swim, and he's now confident and better than many kids. He still has proper one-to-one lessons with a qualified instructor and is working towards his scouts swimming badge. It's not cheap, but it's better than drowning. One of my fellow mums at his primary school lost a sister that way, and she an I are of one mind in this!

My parents also insisted we learn, but after one bad incident during lessons which resulted in one of my almost drowning attempts (the probably-not-terriby-experienced teacher not realizing at first that I wasn't being funny in floundering after he picked me up and threw me off the diving board into the pool, and then he ended up jumping in after me and bringing me back out) I just sort of really lost interest in trying and sort of faked it every year after that to get out of as much as I could.

The last class I took at junior college was the best -- I ended up being a class for nonswimmers or for phobics like me. The teacher said stay in shallower water if you are comfortable there, use whatever doo-dads (swim fins, goggles, water wings, etc.) will make you more comfortable to start with, stop in the middle of a lap and put your feet down for a second if you need to, but just work at being able to swim the width of the pool using the breast stroke, which was really great for me because I could actually see where I was going and actually breathe while I was swimming without my hair ending up over my nose no matter how tightly it had been braided back, and then work up from there. The teacher who sent me from the regular swimming class to what he so contemputously called "the baby class" because I could not get myself across a

20-foot-wide pool in a vertical position in 9 feet of water without using my hands actually did me a much better service than he realized. A true case of someone meaning something for evil and it turning out to be for good.

At the end of that class, I was no l>

I can relate to you on this Melinda. One of my earlier memories was of going to visit some people who had a pool. My mother was friends with the woman, and there was a daughter about my age, and she took me to their pool to swim. After a bit, she pushed me under the water and stood on me. She thought it was great fun. I thought I was going to die. I remember coughing up great gobs of water and crying my eyes out. I said some very rude things to her, too.

After a bit, she pushed me under the water and

And so you should have.

My son had a problem learning to swim. Months later I was trying to get him to float on his back and finally realized 'he's too darn skinny to float there's no fat on him!' He eventually did complete the lessons and since then has qualified and spent time as a lifeguard and teaching water courses, among other things. He's been very active in scouting all his life. As much as he likes the water he also likes to scare his mother to death with his rock climbing! Which he also teaches. Such is life. AK in PA