It’s now time to finally set the sleeves into the armscyes. While in the past I’ve used several rows of shirring stitches to help gather the excess material into the armscye, I’ve found that this is slow and tedious, and with a little practice, it’s quite possible to set the sleeves without the shirring stitches, so that is what we will do here.

Begin by marking the back seam of the sleeve, 1/2″ from the armscye, on the right side. This will help you align the sleeve properly.

On the right side of the back of the coat body, at the armscye, mark the seam allowance and then make a cross hair exactly between the shoulder and side body seams.

Lay the coat armscye and the sleeve head right sides together, with the two cross hairs laying on top of each other. This ensures the precise alignment of the sleeve.

Baste the sleeve to the coat at this point only, making three or four stitches in place to hold everything securely.

Now turn the coat so that the wrong side of the body is facing you, and the sleeve is on the inside. This exposes the armscye seam area in a way that you can readily work on it.

Starting at that crosshair, baste the undersleeve to the armscye using a running stitch.

As you approach the side seam of the coat, you can work a little fullness into the sleeve, using your fingers, in the same manner as described below. This being linen, I’d do maybe a 1/4″ of fullness at most.

Continue basting until you get to the front sleeve seam. Making one backstitch in place. It just so happened that the armscye dart on the coat body aligned with that seam, but this was completely unplanned.

Now that we’ve reached the top sleeve section, you’ll notice there is a lot of excess material that must be fulled in. Using Devere’s system, I’ve found that excess to be about two graduated inches worth, but this can vary according to how full you drafted the sleeve, and any stretching that may have gone on during the construction process.

This fullness must be gradually worked in to the armscye. Hold both layers of fabric between your thumb and fingers, and leaving your thumb in place, gently move some excess fabric towards your last stitch with your fore finger. The amount should be about an 1/8″ per basting stitch, I used a huge amount in the photo just to clarify what is going on. As you move the fabric over with your fingers, take another stitch to hold it in place.

Continue this process towards the top of the sleeve. At the very top, you may notice that the grain of the fabric on the sleeve runs parallel to the edge, which means it cannot be properly fulled. For this inch or two, just lay the sleeve on with normal tension. Then continue fulling around the back of the top sleeve.

After you’ve successfully basted around the sleeve one time, turn everything to the right side and examine your work. The sleeve should lay relatively smooth and be free of unsightly puckers. It actually took me two and a half tries to successfully get to this point, so do not fear if you have to redo some of the fulling. Every fabric will full slightly differently, so that takes some getting used to.

When you are happy, turn back to the inside and baste another row of running stitches around the armscye. These stitches should interweave with the previous stitches, affectively locking everything in place. As you get to the top sleeve, you can further refine the fulling with your fingers, subdividing the fullness in between each new stitch.

Here is what the basting should look like after the second round.

On the body side, mark and sew the seam using back stitches for strength, with a 1/2″ seam allowance. You can further refine the fullness in the top sleeve with each stitch, giving you a completely smooth sleeve head.

Do not trim either seam allowance.

Rather, turn in both seam allowances to the inside, allowing the coat side of the seam to extend a 1/16″ past the sleeve seam allowance. Baste and then fell down. At the top sleeve area, there will be extra fullness, so try to work that in as best you can.

Here is the completed armscye seam, pretty much finishing up the coat except for buttons and buttonholes.

Now that we’ve got the cuff basted in place, we can now move on to sewing the rear sleeve seam. The right side of this stitch should be on the undersleeve, as shown, and with the usual 1/2″ seam allowance.

At the cuff end, the stitching stops 1/4″ beyond the start of the button inlay area. I marked it here for clarity.

As you’re sewing towards the cuff, make sure to move the cuff out of the way, taking out basting stitches if necessary. We don’t want it to get caught in the seam.

Turning the sleeve over to the topside, mark a 1/4″ line at the end of the stitching, perpendicular to the seam.

Note how the mark only goes half way towards the seam line. If we were to go all the way, it would weaken the sleeve at this point.

Carefully snip along the line, through the top sleeve layer only.

Now trim the seam allowance of the top sleeve from that snipped point to the armscye, as per the usual method.

Flipping back over to the undersleeve side, mark a line going from the end of the button inlay diagonally to the very end of the stitching.

Snip carefully along the line through the undersleeve layer only, just to the stitching. Make sure you don’t actually cut any of the stitching!

Fold over, baste, and then fell the seam as normal. Make sure the stitches catch only one or two threads of the sleeve itself, as they’ll be visible from the outside.

The appearance of the seam near the armscye.

And the other end of the seam near the cuff.

Now that the seam is done, we can re-baste the buttonhole facing along the outer edge. Notice how it covers the snip we made in the top sleeve seam.

Fell the edge of the cuff along the edge of the buttonhole side.

Fell the other end of the cuff. Since the two edges go in different directions, I like to start by felling the 1/4″ seam of the button inlay, and then turn the work around and fell down the edge of the cuff. Note, we’re just sewing the ends of the cuff, not the inner edge.

Position the button inlay in place overlapping the buttonhole side of the cuff, and baste securely. You’ll want to make sure everything is properly aligned at this point because this is how the final cuff will look.

Fold under the raw edge at the top of the button inlay, and baste securely closed through all layers.

Turn the sleeve right side out and check the alignment of the cuff opening, making any adjustments if necessary.

This next step is extremely difficult to photograph, but starting at one end of the cuff, 1/4″ from the edge, top stitch using a side stitch to firm up the edge. This stitching goes all the way around the edge of the cuff to the other side.

You can just barely make out the tiny side stitches along the edge.

Turn the sleeve inside out once more, and along the top of the button inlay, fell down the folded edge, going through all layers. Try to catch only a stitch or two of the outside fabric.

About 1/4″ below, and parallel to the edge you just felled, sew a row of backstitches, catching the top layers, but not going through to the outside of the coat. This provides extra strength for the vent.

Turning to the right side out for the last time, top stitch a row of side stitches along the inside edge of the cuff, using your fingers to feel for the edge. The stitching starts at the rear seam and follows the edge of the facing beneath, about 1/8″ away from the edge. This is in place of felling from the inside, and gives a better finish to the cuff.

Here you can barely make out the stitching, which outlines the facing beneath it.

Remove all basting stitches, revealing the finished sleeve.

You can choose to put in the buttons and buttonholes now, or wait until the sleeves have been set.

Now that we have the pattern issues straightened out, it’s time to begin the construction of the sleeves and cuffs. It’s actually quite involved, so this first section will cover up to the basting of the cuffs.

Begin by laying the sleeve pieces on the table, right sides together. Baste along the front seam, working in any fullness as you go along.

Stitch using a back and fore stitch and a 1/2″ seam allowance. It doesn’t really matter which side is the ‘right’ side, just be sure to be consistent with the other sleeve.

Trim one seam allowance to 1/4″.

Baste the raw edge over and fell securely.

Now that you have the sleeve halves together, I like to use them to cut out my cuffs. While it’s possible to do using the paper pattern, I find this method to be much easier and more accurate.

Lay the end of the sleeve on the linen, making sure that the grain lines are aligned with the center seam.

Trace around the cuff area, about 5 inches up each side.

Draw in the upper seam of the cuff, anywhere from 3 to 4 inches from the end of the sleeve. This includes a 1/4″ seam allowance. The seam does go all the way across, I had my sides mixed up which is why the line stops near the right side.

On the button hole side of the sleeve, extend the cuff upwards so that it is about 1/2 an inch higher than the button inlay on the other side of the cuff. The width of this section should be 1/2″ plus the width of your buttonholes, plus another 1/2″ and then a 1/4″ seam allowance. Generally this works out to about 2 to 2 1/2″.

A close up shot of the buttonhole side of the cuff.

And the button side of the cuff. If you wish you can extend this side up as well to cover the entire inlay, which would also give additional support to the first button.

Lay the sleeve and cuff right sides together. Here’s a new technique I’ve developed for better shaping the cuffs. So often the cuffs, being on the inside of the sleeve, are bunched up and not very elegant looking. To prevent that, we’ll add some well-placed basting stiches. Start by turning over the sleeve and cuff, so that the cuff side is nearer the table.

Baste along the end of the sleeve, allowing the fabric to drape over your hand as you go. This makes the sleeve slightly longer than the cuff, and will prevent that bunching.

Working still with the sleeve side up, use a back and fore stitch and 1/4″ seam allowance to attach the cuff to the sleeve.

Remove the basting stitches, and turn the cuff to the inside of the sleeve. Again holding the sleeve with the sleeve side up, and draped over your hand, baste the cuff in position along the edge. As you’re working, make sure that the sleeve extends beyond the cuff by about 1/16″ to better hide the seam.

You can kind of see here how the sleeve wants to curve naturally, even when flat on the table.

Try to keep the basting stitches about 1″ away from either end. This last stitch here was actually too close and I ended up removing it later on.

Holding the sleeve in the same position, baste the inside edge of the cuff, about 1/2″ from the edge of the cuff, and 1″ from either end.

Here is what the basting looks like so far.

Now it’s time to worry about the two ends of the cuff. On the buttonhole side, the raw edges are folded in on both the cuff and the end of the sleeve by 1/2″, corresponding with the seam allowance of the sleeve itself.

Baste the folded edges. In the photo below, I’ve laid the buttonhole side on the button inlay, to ensure they are cut properly. Notice how the buttonhole facing extends 1/4″ beyond the button inlay.

Turn this seam allowance under at the top of the buttonhole facing.

At the inside corner where the facing and cuff lines intersect, draw a 1/4″ line at 45 degrees.

Snip the line and continue folding under the cuff seam allowance all the way to the other end.

Baste everything down. Note you will be removing some of these stitches near the buttonhole facing, but they’re helpful to make sure everything is aligned.

Here’s the button side. Note how I’ve stopped about and inch and a half from the edge.

Fold in the button inlay 1/2″.

Then tuck the raw edge inside so you have a 1/4″ fold and no raw edges showing.

Fold the cuff end in 1/2″ to match, and baste in place.

Before we start sewing down the cuff permanently, we’re going to baste the rear sleeve seam. Align the end near the armscye so that the 1/2″ seam allowance intersects. Pin the cuff end in place, and baste the seam, working in any fullness of the top sleeve in as you go, along the first 6 inches near the armscye.

Baste until about 1″ past the start of the button inlay, making sure the seams are properly aligned.

You’ll have to remove some basting stitches from the buttonhole facing so you can have room to work properly.

That concludes the basting up of the sleeves and cuffs. Next we’ll sew it all together.

Following the instructions in my drafting tutorial, draft a basic sleeve. There are a couple of alterations to be made to the basic pattern.

First, we are going to assume the original pattern found in Devere’s includes the seam allowances in the draft. When drafted this way, the sleeve will have about 2″ of extra fullness than the armscye.

Since we are finishing the sleeves with a half inch seam allowance, we need to add 1/4″ all the way around the draft, except for at the cuff areas, which will be sewn with the included 1/4″ seam allowance.

We also need to add an inlay for the buttons to attach to. This is added at the rear seam of the under sleeve, and is about 5″ long by 1 1/5″ wide.

Here are my completed sleeve patterns. Note the inlay for the buttons and the additional 1/4″ seam allowance.

Closeup showing the added seam allowances. As you can see, I usually trace the under sleeve onto a new sheet of paper, and then cut the top sleeve pattern straight from the original. You may want to trace the top sleeve as well in order to preserve the original pattern. I was feeling confident though, so rarely do that these days.

I highly suggest cutting a muslin sleeve first. When you are happy with the fit, cut out your sleeves in linen.