[Kim]

Last night I gathered the sleeves between the notches. I matched the notch at the top of the sleeve with the notch on the top of the jacket shoulder, I matched the underarm seam of the sleeve and the underarm seam of the jacket. I matched the side notches with the seams from the the piece that goes up and over the shoulder of the jacket. I ended up using the gathering stiches only for one side of the sleeve. The other side just barely fit smoothly without gathering. I had to actually stretch the jacket side to make it fit. When I finished I have some puckering on the jacket side rather than the sleeve side for that area. I am using a walking foot on corduroy and I am using 1/2″ seams. I will take them out, but I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice.

[Toyota888]

Looking back over the instructions I notice that you don’t need to match the top notch, just underarm and sides, but I don’t see that will make any difference. I wonder if the side notches were out because perhaps you sewed those other seams a bit low on one side or something? I’ve made this a few times and haven’t had trouble with this step. If I were to make it up I would match the underarm seams perfectly and then pin the underarm sections up half way so there is no gathering of the underarm section of the sleeve. Then I would gently gather the whole top/over shoulder section of the sleeve so it easily pins to the opening, spreading the gather evenly. You are not actually meant to see any gathers of course, it just eases the fabric in, so if you are a little bit out to one side it probably will make a big difference.

[Liesl Gibson]

Toyota, I think that’s good advice. I hope it works out!

[Kim]

Thank you, I removed the sleeves and folded them in half and placed a pin at the top of the sleeve. The bottom seam was directly across from that pin and the notches were exactly at the sides. I pinned them in and worked the gathers. I still did not have to gather very much but they went in more smoothly. I finished sewing the jacket and I have to say that I really enjoyed this pattern.