Coat too tight in underarm

Hi there, I just bought this beautiful new trench coat that fits me perfectly everywhere except the underarm. Is there some way to make the underarm bigger? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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Reply to
learning2sew
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Do you mean that it is too high? If so, you can reshape the underarm part of the armscye (in both the garment and the lining) by drawing a new lower curve, starting about 3" each side of the underarm/side seam and dropping the new armscye seam a little at a time (no more than 1/4" each time), cutting out the excess fabric and then trying the coat on until you have a better fit. (If it has a two-piece sleeve and princess seams, start drawing your new seam line at each of the two sleeve seams.)

If it is tight across the back, there's not much you can do unless the manufacturer left very deep seam allowances, in which case you can gain about 1/2" on each side of the back by swinging a new seam out 1/4" and tapering back to the original seam line at the shoulder and underarm. But be careful, as that seam at the back of the sleeves takes a lot of stress each time you reach forward, and if you don't leave at least 1/4" of fabric in place it may tear under stress. If you do this alteration, run a couple of additional lines of stitching 1/16" apart within the seam allowance to reinforce the new (narrower) seam allowance well.

Reply to
BEI Design

Can't "see" the coat problem well enough to say for sure, but it might be worth taking it to a good alterationist for his/her appraisal.

Is the armscye too small? If so, it may be able to be recut, probably with the help of a small gusset. Or could the armscye be too far out onto the arm, rather than near the anatomical joint? Or is it too tight in the back of the sleeve? Or too tight in the biceps?

The one thing you want to watch out for... the more closely fitting the armscye is to the shoulder joint, the better the mobility of the sleeve. Coat sleeves, because they're cut to fit over other clothes, tend to be more restrictive anyhow. If you need good arm mobility, you really have to watch how big you get the armscye.

Kay

Reply to
Kay Lancaster

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