New Breckenridge - LOVE - and further discussion of full bicep adjustments

I have been in a mood. So despite the fact that I had this cut out for more than a week, I was just not working on it. I've done other more complicated plackets, so it wasn't that, but I experimented with a new way to do the full bicep and even though this is cheap fabric I was nervous about the result. Anyway, I decided no Metra until I sewed this up! 

Excellent photography, as you may have come to expect from me. 








My mother in law gave me the Threads archive for Christmas so I spent some time looking through there. Lots of articles over the years on fitting as you would expect, but the Jun/July 2016 issue has an article specifically on plus size sleeves. This is by Kathleen Cheetham who also I believe has a book and Craftsy video. What I like about this is it talks about tradeoffs and also that everyone's arm fullness might not be evenly distributed around their arm (!!!). 

Love Notions provides bicep body and finished garment measurements. I'm trying to really figure out how much ease I want in sleeves. I cannot stand all day arm squeezing nor something that is cutting into my armpit, but besides that, I don't know. Anyway here's what I did:

  • Cut a size up for shoulders through bust and then graded to hips
  • Narrow shoulder adjustment of about 1/2" (essentially the same as I would have gotten by cutting the measured size but with the bigger armscye)
  • Standard 1" slash and spread full bicep adjustment
  • Curved the arm seams out by an addition 1/2"  on both sides.
  • Cut the cuff size based on the measurement of the adjusted sleeve and comparing my wrist
The fabric is a 4yd/$4 fabric from Walmart. I need to buy some thinner toilet paper for coverstitching these flimsy fabrics.

The buttons look too big to me. I didn't measure them before putting them on. 

This worked really well. I'm actually considering adding a back seam in the Metra sleeve. I'd have to figure out where, though.

If you have any concerns about the placket, or just want a pep talk, watch Karina's Pins and Needles video


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