[paula]

Hello,

I am new to sewing and have been working my way through the Oliver + S patterns. I am currently on the last step of the kimono top and have realized that the sleeves will not fit around my sewing machine. I have taken the table off, and it is still too big. Do I need to hem these by hand? Is there a trick to sewing them by machine?

Thanks for your help!

[Tamara]

Hi Paula

I haven’t made this particular pattern and I’m guessing you are making a small size (only a guess though) but I have made many Oliver and s garments so I do understand your frustration. What the ladies do (and I have done this aswell) is have the garment so the sleeve is sitting on the top of the sewing machine as it goes around. It sounds tricky I know but it is the better way to do sleeves that won’t fit on the arm of the machine. You just shift the unused or already sewn parts to the left to see what you are doing and to take pins out. So you can put the table back on in order to have more sitting space for your sleeve :).

Alternatively you could do them by hand but this method with the machine is much quicker.

Hope this helps

Tamara

[Jane]

Hi Paula,

When sewing tiny sleeves, it’s best to do the right side out. I have a picture of how to do it here: http://notsewplain.blogspot.com/2012/07/friday-favorites-oliver-s-sunday-brunch.html

It’s probably not the best picture but hope it helps!

Jane

http://www.NotSewPlain.blogspot.com

[Liesl Gibson]

Hi Paula, and welcome! If your machine doesn’t have a free arm (and sometimes even if it does!), tiny openings won’t fit over the machine itself. The best thing to do then it to sew from inside the sleeve, with the rest of the sleeve pushed off to the side. Here is an illustration from the Croquet dress to illustrate what I mean (and what Jane shows in her blog photo):

I hope that helps!

[paula]

Thank you all so much. I now have nicely hemmed sleeves 🙂