How to Draft Sleeves

Oh the joy of sleeves. Drafting can be fun.

Here’s how to do it

Step 1: Measure the length of the front and back armhole.

You can sew the shoulders together and then measure, or measure the pattern pieces and remove the shoulder seam allowance from the measurement.

Step 2: Make a triangle using the armhole measurements where the length of the legs are equal to the length of the front and back armhole.

The steepness of the angle of the legs depends on how wide you want the sleeve to be and/or how deep you want the sleeve cap (we’ll look more deeply at pros and cons of each later in the post).

Here is an example of two different angles. Notice the shallower the angle, the wider the sleeve and the shorter the sleeve cap. The steeper the angle, the narrower the sleeve and the longer the sleeve cap.

Step 3: Draw a nice swooping curve that follows the angle of the triangle legs.

Sleeves are quite forgiving, so don’t get too hung up on the shape of the curve. But here are some things to keep in mind.

a) Many sleeve curves go under the triangle in the bottom section, and then even more over the triangle near the top section.

b) It’s normal for the total length of the sleeve curve to be about 1” (2.5 cm) longer than the total length of the armholes. A little ease is good in the sleeve curve.

Step 4: Decide how long you want the sleeve to be and if you want the sleeve to taper in.

That’s it! You can totally do it! Just play and have fun with it.

Sleeve Angle and Width

Here are examples of what different triangle angles look like on a shirt.

• Wide sleeves with short sleeve caps will point out from the shirt. Lots of athletic shirts and casual sweatshirts have this angle because when you raise your arms, it doesn’t pull the whole shirt up with them. When your arms are down, there is excess fabric around your armpits.

• Medium wide sleeves with medium sleeve caps are similar to a basic t-shirt. They give you room to move, but don’t have too much excess fabric around your armpits when your arms are down.

• Narrow sleeves with high sleeve caps will point down sharply from the shoulder. Lots of professional clothing uses this angle for a clean profile that doesn’t have a lot of excess fabric around the armpit. It looks nice, but the downside is if you ever do have to raise your arms, your whole shirt is coming up with them!

What if I want a sleeve that points out but is really narrow?

Good question. If you want a sleeve that points out (has a short sleeve cap) but is also really narrow, here are some things to play with. You can make the armhole smaller on the front and back bodice pattern pieces by raising up the bottom of the armhole and readjusting the armhole curve. Or you can try a drop shoulder and make the shoulder angle whatever you’d like and the width of the sleeve whatever you’d like. There is something to be said for the freedom that drop shoulders offer!

Adjusting Sleeve Patterns

If you have a sleeve pattern already that you want to adjust to fit a different shirt, here are some adjustments you can make.

If you need to add length to the curve, you can either increase the sleeve cap height, increase width, or a combination of both.

If you need to reduce the length of the curve, you can either decrease the sleeve cap height, decrease width, or a combination of both.

Sleeves can be frustrating, sleeves can be fun. Don’t let them get the best of you. Give them your best playful attitude of enjoyment.

Adventures in Quilted Clothes

Mid winter feels like the perfect time to make a quilted jacket.

I used a linen/cotton blend for the outer fabric and since I couldn’t wait for cotton batting to arrive, sweatshirt material acted as the insulation layer.

With all the layers lined up and sandwiched together, I pined the them together in many places with safety pins.

I marked one line going all the way up and down, one line going all the way across to act as a starting stitching guide. I sewed along the up and down line first, then picked an approximate equal distance from the first line of stitching to sew all the other lines.

Once all the pieces were quilted, I trimmed up the edges and sergered all the way around before sewing them together into a jacket.

I recently wrote an article on The Thread in my series of guest blog posts about winter being a wonderful impetus for pursuing your creative ideas.

Here is an excerpt:

“Spring is an invitation to plant gardens and tap maple trees for their sweet sap, summer is an invitation to collect hickory husks for dyeing linen (and picking mulberries to eat), fall is an invitation to chop down trees for firewood, and unlike the others, the dreaded winter is a special invitation for creativity.

Recently I read something my sister, Anna, wrote describing the importance of being truthful in creative nonfiction writing. She had a very interesting insight. She said that creativity doesn’t thrive in the absence of boundaries, rather, creativity flourishes within the constraints of boundaries. Limits are actually the best fuel for creation.”

You can read the full article here!

Sweet Pea Sweat Set

The Sweet Pea Sweat Set is here!

Vintage style sweats to keep you cozy and stylish.

The No Sweat Guide to Selecting Sweatshirt Fabric

Here is a fun guide for selecting the perfect fabric to make your ideal Sweet Pea Sweatsuit vision a reality.

What is this fabric called?

It’s called sweatshirt fabric (even if making pants) and is in the knit category on websites and in stores.

Stretchy vs non stretchy

There are stretch and non stretch sweatshirt fabrics. The non stretch is easier to manage on the sewing machine. If you are a beginner, I recommend getting non stretch.

Fabric descriptions don’t always say if it has stretch or not, so don’t sweat it too much if you can’t find it in the description. It will turn out beautifully either way, just an extra good challenge to sew when it has some stretch.

Fabric weight

Here are some descriptions to serve as a starting point for figuring out weight.

10 oz — This is on the light side of the sweatshirt fabric spectrum. It’s heavier than a t-shirt weight, but quite a light sweatshirt. It barely crosses over into sweatshirt-land from long-sleeve-shirt-land.

I don’t recommend this weight for the Sweet Pea Sweatsuit and mention it mostly for the context of understanding sweatshirt fabric weight, but if you want a really lightweight sweatsuit, this would be a good option.

14 oz — This is solidly in the middle of sweatshirt-land. Not one you wear on the coldest of winter nights, but one you grab to go on a picnic on a cool summer evening, or use to layer underneath a puffy jacket as you fly down the hillside on your childhood sled.

20 oz - The most delicious of all fabrics in sweatshirt-land. Thick, firmly soft, confidently durable, wears beautifully with time. This is the one to go with if you want a long lasting sweatsuit that makes you feel extra held together and hugged. A sweatsuit to go through years of memories with you. Think of the thickest hoodie you’ve ever owned or wanted to steal from your sister. This is it.

Fabric content

I recommend 100% cotton fabrics because they age well with wear. Have you ever found one of those cool thick sweatshirts from a thrift store or family member that is 20 or 30 years old and maybe has some holes and the trim is a little tattered but you love it and wear it anyway because it’s so soft? Those are usually 100% cotton sweatshirts.

Ribbing

Ribbing is used for the cuffs, waistband, and neckband on sweatshirts. Although ribbing is it’s own category within knit fabrics and works the best, you can use any thick-ish knit fabric that has 20% or more stretch.

The ideal fabric for the cuffs, waistband, and neckband is high stretch and high recovery knit. “Recovery” is when a fabric goes back to its original width and shape after being stretched.

This is 100% cotton sweatshirt fabric in 16 oz weight.

This is 100% cotton sweatshirt fabric in 16 oz weight. Cuffs, waistband, and neckband is high stretch, high recovery ribbing.

This is 100% cotton sweatshirt fabric in 20 oz weight.

This is 100% cotton sweatshirt fabric in 20 oz weight.

All of the fabric used to make samples for these patterns came from Nick of Time Textiles. They have a delicious selection. (Not sponsored)

There's Nothing Like a Matching Sweatsuit