Nov 6, 2012

Large Upper Arm? Let's make the fix EASY!

There's  a lot of you out there with a large upper arm - a bicep that is fuller than many patterns provide for.  And I'm sure you've tried many different variations of how to enlarge the sleeve pattern to fit your larger upper arm.

Often when you widen the underarm, it automatically reduces the sleeve cap height.  Not good!  This just then binds on the top of your shoulder.  Typically, you need to widen the sleeve and maintain the cap height.  And after the frustrating fixes of slashing and spreading the pattern, this easy technique you'll find with Sure-Fit Designs, adds the width you need and usually you don't do anything with the cap height.  Just make sure you've measured the new back and front sleeve cap lengths and compare them to the current armscye lengths.  The back sleeve cap should have about 5/8" ease and the front should have about 1/2" ease.

If you add more than about 1" total width to the underarm width, you'll likely need to widen and/or widen and drop the bodice underarm point to accommodate this larger sleeve.

Take a look at this video to see how easy Sure-Fit Designs deals with this issue.

1 comment:

  1. I am getting so excited at all the possibilities of getting some really well fitting clothes. Thank you Glenda for all these tips.

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