Drafting a dress–5, sleeve comparison

As mentioned in my post of yesterday I’m doing a separate post on the sleeve draft. It’s a bit of a nerdy post probably. I write it for those of you who are interested in pattern drafting but also for myself, to remind myself of the differences now I’ve taken the time to do three drafts based on different systems for the same garment.

The result of the different drafts (focus on the sleevecap). First the Suzy Furrer draft. Ease is added before drafting giving as guideline 1/2 inch for dresses and blouses, 1 1/4 inch for jackets and coats. The total circumference of the armhole on the front and back + ease is a measurement on which the “square size” is based. The measurements for the square size are given in the book (or in the course materials from the Craftsy course). It’s the dotted line in the drawing. Based on this square the rest of the sleeve is drafted.

Second the Helen Joseph-Armstrong draft. The guideline for ease is different and given as 1 1/2 inch for sizes 10 and above, 11/8 inch for sizes below 8. An armhole measurement formula is used for the draft and mentioned is that further changes might be necessary, based on form, posture etc. In my draft I used the formula, which gives a little ease. The cap height is important but no guideline is given which the height should be. I took 6 inches, which was the measurment I found in one of the charts for a size 14. The draft starts with the triangle between top and biceps line. I thought this was the easiest draft to follow.

And third the Danckaerts system (It’s drafted with the front on the left side of the paper, but for comparison I’ve mirrored the image). This is a metric system and as such easier for me to use. It’s more more mathematical and instruction tells you that ease of at least 4 cm (about 1.5 inch) is necessary. Not too difficult as I’ve learned the method in a course, but instructions like 8/10 of armhole circumference + or – 1 cm are not the easiest if you do it for the first time. This sleeve is longer than the others, as the sleeve length is measured from the dot I’ve drawn on the dotted lines. Therefor it gives more space for the cap and the roundness at the top. In the drafts from SF and HJA the total length of the sleeve is the measured length. The Danckaerts sleeve has the extra space on the top.

Comparing SF and HJA draft.
On top is the SF draft. Notice the different straight of grain line. When I saw SF do this in the Craftsy class it was the first time I’ve seen it. Mostly the straight of grain is the center line. The HJA draft has a bit more room in the cap, which was more comfortable in my mock-up sleeves.

Difference between HJA draft and Danckaerts system.
There’s more room in the back of the cap, I’ve tried this before and it did not work for me. I know I need the curve like the other drafts. The front is similiar though.

 

Different position of the elbow dart (SF and HJA). SF uses the measured distance and HJA instruction is take half of the sleeve length. A very distinct difference. In my sleeves the elbow dart of the SF sleeve seemed a little too high. Which is strange as it was the length measured. The HJA dart is wider (1/2 inch to 1 inch). The curve was more clear.

This will be all my posting about drafting this dress. I’m still on the fence whether to continue or not. The fabric is lovely and I do have enough to cut a different front pattern. Any thoughts for an alternative front welcome! I will probably be sewing a lingerie set in the meantime.

Sleeves

I had high hopes of finishing my jacket before Thursday, so that I could wear it to my sons' presentation on his bachelor thesis. It did not work out that way. But my son did fine and I’m a proud mum. It’s on such days that you realize time flies by so very, very fast.
It was not a good day to wear a jacket anyway. Warm and very high humidity after days of exceptional rain.
Where am I then with the jacket? The sleeves are inserted and it’s down to sewing the lining. 
The picture below shows the interfacing of the sleeves. At the upper part the pattern pieces are interfaced with a light weight fusible, the hem with a heavy weight fusible. I already did this when interfacing the body part, to do all the interfacing in one go. If you look closely you can see that I traced the essential points again (top of sleeve, end of seam) with carbon tracing paper.

After stitching I made long straight stitches to gather the top of the sleeve a bit.

The sleevecap I made as I did before, using a method that is described by Ann Rowley. This time I made some photos myself too.
A strip of batting fabric is used, about 20 centimeters long (8 inch) and 3.5 cm wide and pinned to the inside of the sleeve, with the edge of the batting to the edge of the seam allowance of the sleeve. For this jacket I used a thin batting, for a winter coat I would have used a bit thicker fabric.

The strip is stitched from the jacket side, just beside the existing stitch.

The batting is then folded over the seam and stitched in the ditch.



The protruding batting is cut away after this stitching.

I used thin, felt shoulderpads (the classic tailoring type) that I attached to the batting and at the end at the shoulder seam. In the photos below you can see the difference a shoulder pad makes. The effect differs with different fabrics. I’m not after the 80’s look with wide shoulders, but I like the look after adding a small shoulder pad

It might all be a bit much tailoring for a summer jacket, but it looks so much better. And it will wrinkle less too. I made a jacket years ago using quite a few of these techniques on a linen fabric. It’s been a much worn item in my closet, hardly wrinkles despite being linen and not showing any signs of wear either.

Browsing through my pictures to find this one was fun. So many clothes I had forgotten about (blush). This was from 2010! Yes, time flies….

More progress – sleeve

In this jacket I chose to use the “sleeve wrap” method instead of the more conventional sleeve head. I first saw this method used in one of Ann Rowley’s jackets and kind as she is, she has a photo tutorial in her Flicker album. I’ve used it once before when doing a course in making a classic tailored jacket.

This is how it looks like on the inside.

And here on the outside.

 

Lyndle asked how and when I add seam allowance, on the fabric or the pattern and whether I use the actual seam lines. I absolutely prefer to work with the seam lines and not often add the default seam allowances. I use wax tracing paper to trace the actual seamlines to my fabric and use those during construction. That paper is a normal sewing notion in the shops here.

That said this jacket is a break from that routine: the fabric would not take marking with wax tracing paper and a lot of fusibles were applied too. I cut with the 1.5 cm (5/8”) seam allowance added to the paper pattern, but still mark the actual seamlines on crucial points after applying the fusibles. For example the top of princess seams, the top of sleeve seams, the neckline corner. I love the accuracy of working with the seamlines. It’s how I learned to sew, patterns with added seam allowances were something I did not know till I bought my first Vogue pattern (pretty sure that was a Claude Montana pattern), and then I was in my twenties and had been sewing for over 10 years. Never got used to patterns with added seam allowances.

  

In above picture you can see the curved ruler that’s 5/8”wide which I used to mark the corner. Claire sells them again, also in metric measurements. I use them regularly, they’re such a handy tool.

Two piece sleeve comparison - muslin

Yesterday evening was the perfect moment to sew the muslin with the two different sleeves. Some important football (soccer) match that my family really wanted to see and I am not interested at all. Football on television is out of the room for me ;). I don’t mind others watching, just don’t like it myself.

The result (changed the colors a bit to show the seams better). On my left arm is the more conventional draft, on the right side Suzy Furrer’s ddraft.

 

The right shoulder is more sloped which is clear in the pictutres and the sleeve even seems to drop off the shoudler. I’ll look into those issues later, the focus for now was on the sleeves. I think the shape of both sleeves is fine. The sleevecap on the more conventional one is higher (it has more ease). In both sleeves a little room can be taken out of the back armhole

In Suzy Furrer’s method the seam in the front is very visible as was to be expected seeing the pattern pieces. I don’t like that and will use the other sleeve. Though if you have Suzy’s class on sleeves, you’d probably be able to figure out how to change it. I will not bother because I have another option already.

Further this is not the jacket style I have in mind, so there will be more to do on that, but it will have to wait a while. The next pictures will probably be from a sunny spot in the south of Europe. Books and knitting in my suitcase, no sewing.

 

 

Two piece sleeve – drafting comparison

In general I’m very impressed with the pattern drafting classes by Suzy Furrer, as you have read in previous posts. Watching her doing the two piece sleeve though I had my doubts. It looked so different from what I’m used to in a two piece sleeve, both from commercial patterns as from the way I’ve drafted those before.

After my holiday I want to make a jacket, so I started changing the sloper to a jacket sloper and thought it was time for a sleeve draft experiment. I drafted the two piece sleeve using Suzy Furrer’s instructions and drafted it too using the method I was already familiar with. For both I used the same draft for the jacket itself.

Writing this post as much for those interested in drafting as for keeping track of what I’m doing myself.

The first picture is the way Suzy Furrer starts her two piece sleeve, her base is the normal sleeve draft and you take the outside parts and combine those to the under sleeve. The second picture is the Danckaerts method I’ve learned in the past year or so. In this system you don’t start with the base of another sleeve, the instructions are especially for drafting a two piece sleeve, based on the circumference of the armhole.

 

What I noticed in Suzy Furrer’s method is that there is less curve to the sleeve. She instructs you how to make it curve more forward, but in the result it’s less than in the other method. Also, because the “square” used in her method was rather wide for my armhole circumference, the result is an upper sleeve that’s very wide at the bottom, and an under sleeve that’s very narrow.

	The final pattern pieces using Suzy Furrer’s method
	Final pattern pieces using the Danckaerts system
	Upper sleeve pattern side by side
	Under sleeve pattern side by side

There is one important difference between the drafting systems: in Suzy Furrer’s method you decide yourself how much ease you want in the sleeve cap, as you measure the front and back length including the ease while drafting. The Danckaerts method is designed to always have 4 cm of ease. In the instructions it says: the sleeve cap must always have 4 cm of ease. Opinions differ on the need of ease at all and to how much is needed depending on the fabric you use. To me 4 cm is too much in general, I prefer less, so it will be a bit more complicated to change that in the pattern.

To me the draft of the under sleeve looks too narrow in Suzy Furrer’s method. To really compare I will make up a muslin of the jacket sloper and use both drafts.