I have no illusions; I know that today’s post will upset quite a few people. Why, might you ask? Well, it’s because there has been a long standing myth –myth– in construction that the pattern of a well-formed sleeve cap must be larger than the armhole into which it is sewn to result in a “couture” finish. I can certainly understand how people could be upset to learn sleeve cap ease is a fallacy because this would mean that all of the money and time they’ve spent on books and classes was wasted. Similarly, no one is happy to learn that the countless hours they’ve expended actually basting these suckers in was a wash either. Still worse, if the “experts” were wrong about this, how much of what else they’ve said is also bogus? Therein lies the problem with entrenched beliefs. Tear away one belief, others are quick to follow and then what are you left standing on? Maybe it’s time to think for yourselves.

Would it make any of you feel any better to know that I also once believed in the whole sleeve cap ease myth? Well, I did. In school and from books, I learned that my sleeves would never be perfect unless I did the whole basting, pinning and praying thing too. But when I started working in factories, I learned differently and very quickly that all the time, worry and study I’d done was not the best expenditure of my time. Like you, I felt lied to, I was very disillusioned and not at all happy about it. As supporting evidence of my claim, I offer the following as evidence:





I found the above photo in the Sam’s Club circular from last Wednesday’s paper. As an avowed non-shopper, this was the only thing in the sales flyers that excited me. Unfortunately, Sam’s isn’t selling the coat, only the Kate Spade bag that’s been cropped from the photo so I have no idea who made this coat. So on the face of it, what does this photograph tell you -other than that the model is right-handed? What you’re supposed to notice is that the horizontal stripes across the jacket back and sleeve match perfectly. Not only that but the vertical stripes match as well! I have no idea which pattern maker cut this coat but this is an amazing piece of work -horizontal and vertical stripe matching! I can only hope this pattern maker is well compensated for their mastery.

Obviously, the total length of the sleeve cap must be equal to the total length in the armhole, otherwise these stripes would not be matching. Below is my sketch of the horizontal match striping:

And the vertical match stripe is below:



So you can see that the photo of the coat is evidence representing a real piece of work resulting in a dual match stripe. On a related note, if you’re one of those people that have always thought that individual seamstresses (or you) were accountable for whether something is matched up or not, this evidence should dispel that belief as well. No seamstress had the control over these stripes that the pattern maker did. It was the pattern maker who did this, not any individual seamstress no matter how talented or dedicated. The pattern was cut to facilitate this. Consider the contrary, if the armhole and sleeve are the exact same size, setting the seams to match are beyond the seamstress if either of the two were off-set.

Now, normally a match stripe isn’t much of a trick although it seems that way -unless of course, your sleeve and/or armhole are not cut correctly (more on that below). If you have my book, look in the section on production pattern making and you’ll see a match stripe running across a front and back bodice with sleeve on page 180. In production pattern making, you have to have that line drawn in -usually in green or purple ink- to indicate the match stripe. When the marker is made, all of the affected pieces will be aligned commensurately.

The real trick to matching stripes across the sleeve is no trick at all. Rather, it’s a tremendous amount of work. As someone who’s specialized in making suits, I can say that. Now, the reason why sleeve patterns often have ease is because either the armhole or the sleeve -but usually both- are cut incorrectly. Cutting those two correctly is very difficult and time consuming. For example, most sleeves look something like the left sketch below.



Most people are used to looking at sleeves like the one on the left but this is not anatomically correct. Rather, the sketch of the sleeve on the right is more accurate so I’m not surprised if it looks wrong to you. To make the sketch on the right, I traced the one on the left; the black portion represents the area that has been cut away from the front of the sleeve and the red area represents area that’s been added to the back of the sleeve. The end result is that sleeve cap ease is a band-aid; it’s a quick fix to compensate for a poorly made pattern.

Now, the reason that the front of the sleeve is scooped out is because -whether you realize it or not- your arms are not hanging on the sides of your body; your arms are hanging towards the front of your body, so it only stands to reason the front of the sleeve is scooped out. Now, if you doubt your arms are on the front of your body, stand in front of a mirror and raise your arms -in their most comfortable position over your head-…where are your armpits? If you’re like every other human on the planet, your armpits are facing you, dead center. If your arms really were on the sides of your body (the way sleeves and armholes are cut) you’d have to turn sideways to see your armpits. There is a much greater discussion of this issue in my book, see “Fundamentals of fitting” pp 163-169 (with all the fitting books out there you’d think somebody would have made a point of this simple anatomical fact already but they haven’t). Use that section as a guide correcting the front and back portions of your chest drafts. And yeah, it’ll take a lot of iteration to get it right which is yet another reason why you should be using blocks so you don’t have to start from zero each time.

Below is another sketch you can use as a point of comparison. These are sketches of the sleeve once it’s been sewn up but not yet set. On the left is your typical sleeve (the underarm seam is facing you). On the right, you’ll see a sleeve with a rotated armhole. Your sleeves should look more like the ones on the right.



After reading all of this and considering the survey of existing books on the subject, maybe you’ll understand how I feel about many of the self-proclaimed “experts” out there. Like you, I was taken in at one point but no more. Nobody told me any of this stuff, I had to figure it out on my own. That’s why I now say that the only experts more irritating than those who co-opt “couture” to describe their skills, are those co-opting “industrial sewing”. Let’s hang the ones who do both :)