The second sleeve

The second sleeve for my jacket (I haven't named this one yet - I'm thinking Polly.. Polly the Practice!) I did at home. As I had more time, I thought I'd give the gathering technique a bash. SO I first sewed two lines of gathering stitches (see right) around the cap of the sleeve. Then I pinned the sleeve into the armhole matching the notches at the top and bottom. I gathered the threads in two halves, on each side of the top pin. One side was fine, but the other side was really stiff (maybe the two rows of gathering stitches were a little close together at some point) which made it hard to spread out the ease equally and in the right places. Once I'd gathered the threads enough to fit the sleeve to the armhole, I pinned it all together, ready for sewing.

I actually found it really hard to sew this, going around in a circle not being able to see... I wasn't a massive fan of the gathering stitch method... I found it really hard to sew the gathering without getting little folds in the seam. I think I should have sewn the two rows of gathering stitches further apart and then sewn it properly between the two lines of gathering - something our teacher did in sewing class which worked really well...

Once I'd clipped the curves and turned it the right way out, given it an iron and hemmed the peplum, it looked pretty cool! And it does fit really quite well. You can see the little tucks resulting from the dodgy gathering on the left sleeve (right as you look from the front) and also where I managed to cock up sewing on the pocket flaps... woops. I think I might put little patch pockets on the front - I always think those fake flaps look a little weird on their own. The pointy shape of the pocket flaps is echoed in the cuff of the sleeves though you can't see the cuffs very well in the pictures. As I say, I reckon they'd look much better as three quarter length sleeves...

So because I've been so slow in class, I have a LOT of homework this week. I have to cut out the pattern (other than the sleeves which I will adjust and cut in class with the benefit of our lovely teacher's expertise) in the outer fabric and the lining, and I also need to get some interlining I think (our teacher said this - I assume she means interlining as opposed to interfacing?!)... next work looks as if it could be horrific at work so this could be pretty tough!