Set in Sleeves

I sew the sleeves to the shirt before sewing up the side seam. Then sew the side seam and shirt seam all at the same time.

I hate it when that happens so sometimes what I do is try and eliminate some of the access by cutting down the sleeve a bit, more so on the sides as opposed to the cap. Many patterns that I have worked with in the past have larger sleeves than the armhole and they by no means look that way on the pattern evelope.

I'm sure that you have already done this, but sometimes it doesn't hurt to check that you have cut the right size sleeve for the garment you are using and make sure you match your circles and notches. These are there for a reason and are to assist you with putting the sleeve in right, however, sometimes that can go against everything we have learned too...

If all else fails and this doesn't work, ease some of the access into the lower armhole, or in the underarm. Sometimes the way the notches are set up, there is plenty to put down here and would no doubt leave you some of the room you need to set the cap of the sleeve in without all those easing puckers.

I hope this helps

Addie

Don't sew the underarm seam before sewing the cap.

Hi, Angie! One thing that will help, if there is not _too_ much sleeve, is to sew the sleeve into the armhole with the sleeve-side to the feed-dogs.

liz young

There are a few tricks. Some of them work better for some folks than others. :) (We all have our likes.)

A few folks have told you to not set in sleeves, but to use a flat construction method. (where you attach the sleeve head then sew the underarm seam and the side seam all at once.) That works well in a lot of garments. But it won't work well for every blouse or jacket. (especially suit coats, IMO.) Setting sleeves in is a really good skill to have mastered, and it just takes some time, some patience, and often a few really good cuss words. ;)

Remember that you do need that extra fullness in the sleeve for ease. Without that extra in there, you wouldn't have full range of motion when you wear the blouse.

Some things to try:

Using your favorite removable marking tool (by that I mean fade away or wash away pen, or chalk or blue/white/red pencil, whatever you like that won't leave a mark there forever) mark the sleeve head and the armhole along the Stitching Line. Right where you will put in that seam. Run your ease stitches in the sleeve head like you normally do, be sure they are in the seam allowance. Then when you go to put the sleeve into the armhole, match up the marked stitching lines rather than the cut edges. Amazing what a difference that can make.

Sorry - slightly long post! For drop shoulder garments you can certainly join the sleeve to the garment first and then seam the sleeve and body in one operation (this is usually for a more straightened out sleeve head where there is hardly any excess to ease in).

However for a proper set in sleeve it is better to seam up the side seams of both sleeves and the garment before setting in the sleeves and my tips for that are as follows.

1. Stitch side seams of garment.
2. On the flat sleeves use two lines of machine gathering stitches between the notches on the sleeve head (one line just slightly to one side of the eventual seam and the other line just to the other side) stitching on the wrong side of the sleeve. It is really worth taking time to stitch these lines as carefully as possible so that they come out parallel, as this makes putting the sleeve in much easier.
3. Then, stitch the sleeve underarm seams.
4. Next, before even putting the sleeves near the garment, ease up the gathering stitches and carefully slide them until the shape of the sleeve looks like you would like it to look in the garment (by balancing the sleeve on your middle fingers and just letting it hang.
5. Pin the sleeve into the garment, right sides together, matching notches. Pin at frequent intervals, with the pins at right-angles to the gathering lines.
6. Tack very close to one side of the gap between the gathering stitches, making sure there are no pleats.
7. Finally, stitch the sleeve in (with the sleeve side facing upwards) in the remaining gap between the gathering stitches. If you are happy with the way the sleeve hangs when you try on the garment (which you should be, after all this preparation!), you can remove both machine gatherings and hand tackings, put your usual second row of stitching within the seam allowance and finish the seams with your preferred method.

However if you still feel there is too much fullness (perhaps because it was an older, more old-fashioned pattern), then you should reduce the sleeve head slightly (retaining a nice even shape), bearing in mind that you must not reduce it so much that the seam line will be the same length or shorter than the seam line of the garment.

This does seem a very long-winded process, but becomes automatic after a while and, I think, is worth it in the long run. Apologies for any errors, but typing this quickly when tired after coming home from girls' weekend in London.

This is easy to show but hard to say. You really don't want to match the cut edges of sleeves/armhole. What you want to match is 5/8 in from the edge. Since one curve is an outside curve and one side is an inside curve the cut edges will be a different length. Now having said that. you need to feel with your thumbs/fingers at the stitching line before you sew for any places that will pucker. Run your fingers one on top and one on back as if your fingers were sewing, squeezing them together a bit. If you push one fabric more than the other then you will get a pucker when you sew. sometimes it is just a matter of distribution .

Be careful to sew at the seam allowance not inside or outside. If you run gathering stitches on the sleeve, draw them up to the size you need, smooth out the gathers, or even them up. and using the tip of your iron, iron only the seam allowance. You can smooth out alot of fullness this way. Sometimes it doesn't look like there was any gathering if I iron the sleeve first. Caution here, if you used the washout marking pen to mark the seamlines like someone else suggested, do not iron. Some can be set with an iron. Actually marking the sewing line is not a bad idea, just don't do both, marking and ironing.

Now when I pull the gathers, and any time I pull gathers, I pull them more than I need and then let the fullness back out. What this does is help distribute the fullness into any fiber that can squish, and not just some of them. I have found that I get much smoother gathers if I gather the threads all the way and not just partially, then let them back out to the length I need. .

Also if you can get ahold o fone of the video by Margaret Islander, she shows you how to put in a sleeve with the sleeve on the bottom with no gather stitches, like they do in factories. This is the absolute best way for casual clothes, but if you are tailoring a jacket, and for some sleeve styles, they have to be sewn in, in the round.

Sandy E

Thank you all for your suggestions. I will try all of them!