Here's a handy thing I learned in a college garment construction class. It's not, of course, something you would do with a tailored jacket, since those are set in by hand. But this is great for shirts, for instance, so long as the fabric isn't so lightweight that the feed dogs would tear holes in it. (Which can happen, so be warned.) There should be a certain amount of ease in a sleeve head. That means that the distance around the sleeve head edge, between the side seams of the sleeve, is a little longer than for the corresponding edge on the body of the shirt. It's what gives a sleeve that nice roll from the shoulder. When you're working with a firm weave fabric, it can be hard to manage getting it to sit nicely in the sleevehole. You can baste the sleevehead with running stitches, and pull those threads to ease it in, but this is a quicker, industrial method. Starting … [Read more...]