Sloping shoulder tutorial March 2008

How to Correct Sleeve and Armhole Fit. Copyright of Dawn Cloake March 2008 How to Correct Sleeve and Armhole Fit A tutorial, designed, written and illustrated by Dawn Cloake using PatternMaker Software www.fashionacademy.co.uk e-mail: dawn@fashionacademy.co.uk Introduction Many people can buy *RTW garments in ‘their size’ and have perfectly satisfactory results. The same can be said for commercial paper patterns. When our body size and shape falls into the ‘average’ category we should experience little, if any, difficulty in sewing a sleeve into an armhole. Yet sleeves and the armscyes into which they fit present more difficulties than almost any other aspect of garment design and construction. One cannot be isolated from the other. Most commercial paper patterns present no problems if used according to the instructions and it is usually what we do with them when altering them in preparation for cutting the fabric or changing the cut garment during and after fittings that causes problems. These patterns are unable to take into account the many different shapes and idiosyncracies of the human body in the size ranges they cover so even a perfectly balanced sleeve in its armscye can look fine on a garment stand but wrong when worn. Many problems occur as a result of taking incorrect measurements to check against the pattern before cutting the fabric or of not understanding how ...