Sussing Out Sleeves — Janet Szabo

I like the New Look 6344 pleated-front blouse pattern, but you may remember that I had a terrible time setting in the sleeves. Contrast that to Simplicity 9469—fast becoming a favorite of mine to wear—where the sleeves went in smoothly and fit beautifully. Why the difference?

I find it’s helpful to lay out the pattern pieces as if they have been sewn together and look at the shape of the armscye. Here is Simplicity 9469:

This, to me, looks like a beautiful, well-shaped armscye.

This is the armscye for New Look 6344. I flipped the photo so that the front piece would be on the left, as it is in the photo above:

What the heck happened here? Someone’s first day on the job?

I want to note two things: First, the length of these armscyes is the same at 19-1/2". Second, the sleeve cap shaping on both patterns is identical. I have no explanation for this weirdly-shaped armscye other than bad pattern drafting. Am I missing something?

After comparing the shape of the armscyes, I wanted to know how the front and back pieces differed. If the armscye was shaped differently because of the pleating on the front, one would expect the fronts to be shaped differently. Nope. Here they are, laid one on top of the other (9469 on top):

Where they differ is on the back pattern pieces (again, 9469 on top):

Why? What am I missing? I don’t know what I don’t know, which is frustrating sometimes.

I re-traced New Look 6344 with the armscyes from Simplicity 9469. We’ll see if that fixes the issue.

When I see this kind of stuff, I understand why people don’t sew clothing for themselves. I have enough knowledge to at least begin looking for the problem. If I were a rank beginner, I’d be baffled and frustrated.

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While I’m griping, lol . . . one of the things I notice when watching sewing videos is people’s bad sewing habits. Yesterday, I watched someone make a dress while sewing over pins. Ack! She will stop doing that as soon as she hits a pin and throws the timing off in her machine, necessitating a trip to the repair shop. The other habit that grinds my gears is watching people with one hand in front and one hand in back pulling or pushing the fabric through the machine. That is almost guaranteed to deflect the needle and cause it to strike the needle plate, which is another great method for throwing a machine out of time. 🤦🏻‍♀️ I was doing a serger demo one time when a lady sat down to try out the machine and serged by pulling the fabric through. (I stopped her as soon as I saw what she was doing.) I don’t know who teaches these kinds of habits, but they are more prevalent than I expected. All I can do is correct these habits when I see them in my classes, and demonstrate good techniques. My serger students know that if I see them serging with pins instead of clips, they are likely to get a lecture. Pins and serger knives do not mix.

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The weather looks to improve and dry out a bit this week. I’ll be working on plant sale stuff and mowing the grass. Conventional wisdom here in Montana is that we don’t plant our gardens until Memorial Day weekend or until the snow is gone from the mountains. There is still snow on the mountains, and I won’t be planting anything except maybe peas and brassicas, because the soil hasn’t warmed up yet. This has been a weird spring.