Hi
I had a question..... How do we attach the sleeve to the armhole by hand for the finished product and what kind of stitch do we use if we are going to attempt to do it by hand like they used to do it in the old days? secondly is there and advantages or disadvantaged of sewing it in by hand?
thank you
Thank you for the help and advice🙏🙏
I too use to do mine by hand. But if you have to take it out, that will take longer and you risk damaging the cloth. There’s no real benefit doing it by hand.
I used to sew my sleeves in by machine, but I've started doing it by hand. For a beginner, machine is probably best because it takes some experience to produce a neat hand stitch. Also, it's faster, and I found when I was learning that I needed to insert/remove the sleeve multiple times before I was happy with the result. Nowadays I'm generally happy first time.
The type of stitch I use is a 'back stitch'. I've heard of some people using a 'chain stitch' to insert the sleeve but I don't really see why you would bother with that. I work with the sleeve facing me, on the inside of the armhole.
Disadvantages of hand sewing the sleeve:
- It is slower (but not as slow as you might think).
- It takes some practice to produce a straight hand stitch.
Advantage of hand sewing the sleeve:
- I find you're much less likely to get puckers, because you can work fullness in with your thumb as you go, whereas the machine just ploughs through regardless. You can also arguably work more fullness in because of this, and achieve a nicer rope more consistently.
Some people argue that a hand-sewn seam is superior to a machine seam. I'd say that a hand sewn seam is definitely more flexible and softer, but the machine seam is stronger, which is arguably what would be more important for a sleeve seam... I think it's a matter of opinion.
Good luck with it.