Setting the sleeves can seem a little intimidating at first, but with a bit of practice it will become second nature to you. The first thing I like to do is make sure I’ve got the correct sleeve and correct armscye – both for the same side!

Then lightly mark an ‘X’ indicating the center of the back piece at the armscye, 1/2″ from the edge, and 1/2″ from the edge of the sleeve along the back seam.

Working from the right side of the coat at this point, align the sleeve and armscye together at the two points.

Make a couple of stitches in place to secure this point.

With the sleeve secured in place to the back, turn the coat inside out. In the photo you can see the wrong side of the back piece with the stitches we just put in. Pass the thread through to this side. In this position it’s much easier to work on attaching the sleeves.

Working towards the side body and under sleeve, begin basting the sleeve to the armscye using a running stitch about 1/4″ to 3/8″ in length.

When you get to the front sleeve seam underneath, make a stitch in place to keep everything in place as you gather the sleeve head in the next step.

To gather the sleeve head into the top of the armscye, it’s common to use a series of gathering stitches. It’s not really necessary though, and a quicker method and more accurate method – once you’ve got the practice in – is to gather in the excess material with your fingers as you go. With time you’ll be able to estimate better and better exactly how much to gather in.

Continue gathering across the top of the sleeve, continuing to baste as you move along.

After you’ve completed the basting stitches all the way around, pause for a moment, turn the coat right side out, and examine the sleeve. Does it hang correctly? Is it evenly gathered? If necessary, just remove the basting stitches from the top of the armscye and baste again until you get it right. Sometimes I underestimate the material to be gathered in and end up having to have a second try. Even with this minor setback, I still find it easier and faster than adding in all of those gathering stitches.

When you’re happy with the fit of the sleeve, baste another row of running stitches right on top of the original stitches, offsetting the stitches so that they interlock with the previous ones. This locks everything in place very nicely.

Turn the coat wrong side out again and position the armscye as shown to begin sewing it to sleeve, using a 1/2″ seam allowance.

Rotate the entire coat as you sew to make things a little easier.

Remove the basting stitches after you’ve sewn the seam.

Examine your work now! How’d you do? Mine is slightly off here. Should have marked it with the ‘X’ as I instructed . . .

Repeat the entire process for the opposite sleeve, keeping in mind you’ll have to work in the other direction. Always secure the undersleeve first, followed by gathering in the top sleeve.

Felling the Raw Edges

Now we’ve got to secure the raw edges of the armscye and sleeve head. Begin by folding the seam allowance of the armscye under itself as shown.

Trim off any excess bits of seams that extend out beyond 1/2″ to make things more manageable.

Continue folding under the entire length of the armscye seam. Press with your fingers as necessary.

Now fold the sleeve seam allowance under to match. I usually just do a couple of inches at a time as it seems to want to ‘escape’ if I try to do the entire seam.

Now fell the two folded seam allowances together using a 1/4″ or so stitch through all layers.

Just continue turning under the seam and felling as you go until you’ve felled the entire armscye.

Here’s the complete armscye with the felled seams.

Now that the coat is hemmed, it’s time to top stitch the coat and facing. This top stitching serves to keep the edges from rolling out of position over time, ensuring everything is neat and tidy. It also somewhat stiffens the edge, adding to the durability.

The original coat was top stitched by machine, so that’s what we’ll do.

Starting at the back skirt on one half or the other, begin to top stitch along the hem, about 3/16 from the bottom, or near the top of the hem to keep it from opening up.

Continue along to the bottom front of the coat. As I get to the facing, I like to taper the top stitching so it’s about 1/8″ from the edge.

Continue stitching up along the front of the coat. When you get to the collar area, just keep the top stitching parallel to the edge, and pivot at the point where the collar meets the coat.

Continue across the collar, and down the other side of the coat.

Facings

Finally, top stitch the inner edge of the facings, again working whichever direction works best for you. I’m starting at the shoulder line here, about 1/8″ from the edge of the facing.

Continue top stitching until you get to the bottom of the facing.

Please note that this is just a very rough outline of the buttonhole process. If you’ve never made a buttonhole before, check out my extensive tutorial The Art of the Buttonhole, and make a few practice buttonholes before moving on to the coat.

You should have already laid out the position of the buttonholes on your coat draft. Or you can be like me and adjust all of the positions on the coat leaving a bunch of chalk marks everywhere (don’t worry they come out after a bit!). Baste around each buttonhole.

Cut out each buttonhole with a buttonhole cutter, or if you don’t have one, a hole punch and chisel.

Trim the eyelets into a teardrop shape.

Fell around the buttonhole to secure the layers permanently.

Finally, secure the four-cord around the buttonhole (not shown), and then work the buttonhole stitch for each.

If you recall from earlier when we were cutting out the coat, we left an extra 1/2″ inlay along the back skirt. This needs to be trimmed to match the length of the front skirts. Yours may be slightly more or less than 1/2″, depending on how accurate you were during construction.

I used a hip curve here to mark the lines on the right side of the coat, though a regular ruler will work too. Just keep in mind the bottom hem is slightly curved.

Make sure to mark the hidden part of the back skirt as well.

When you’re happy with the layout lines, trim off the excess from the back skirt.

Working from whichever end is more convenient, fold the bottom hem up 1/2″, and then turn the raw edge under itself, giving a 1/4″ hem. I usually press with my fingers as I go, followed by basting, and a good pressing with the iron.

At the pleat area, I like to open up the pleat and fold the hem through all of the layers. Alternatively, you could press the entire length of the pleat and hem the folded pleat as one unit.

Continue towards the front of the coat.

At the front edge, arrange the hem and facing so that all raw edges are hidden, and baste everything securely.

I’ve found that the easiest way to get the cuff pattern is to simply trace the sleeve itself onto the fabric. Lay the sleeve on the fabric with the center seam following the grain of the fabric, and trace around the cuff area, following up the sides about 3 or 4 inches.

Draw the top seam of the cuff about 3 to 3 1/2″ above the end of the sleeve. This will give a 2 to 2 1/2″ finished cuff, accounting for the seam allowances. The exact width of the cuff depends on your preference and size, really.

Cut out both cuff pieces.

Now lay the cuff under the sleeve, right sides together.

While holding one hand underneath, baste the cuff to the sleeve. By basting in this manner, you’ll shorten the length of the cuff, which will reduce excess material from bulking up in the finished cuff.

Now draw the curves on each end of the cuff in the same manner as the collar, and facings. Draw in the seam allowances 1/2″ from the edge. Mark along the outer seams 1 1/4″ away from the inner edge of the cuff to mark the end of the sewing so you can turn under the raw edge later. And then draw in the curves with the same radius as the other pieces.

Sew from point to point, following the curves.

Trim the excess from around each curve down to about 1/8″.

Turn, baste, and press the cuff into its final position. The cuff should be inset from the edge of the sleeve by 1/16″ to 1/8″.

It’s easier to do this step before sewing the rear sleeve seam, but I somehow mixed up the steps and photography so the photos were taken after completing the rear seam.

First, run a row of basting stitches along the middle of the cuff to keep things further in place. Keep at least 1″ from the raw edge.

Now fold under the raw edge of the cuff 1/2″ and baste, keeping the stitches about 1″ away from either end to make room for sewing the rear sleeve seam.

Now baste the folded edge of the cuff securely in place.

Before the cuff itself can be finished, the rear sleeve seam must be closed up. Baste the seam right sides together. Depending on your draft, you may have a little excess fabric in the outer sleeve, which should be gathered in along the upper half of the seam, nearer to the armscye.

Sew the rear sleeve seam, press open, and turn under and press the raw edges as usual.

Now fell down the folded seam edges. This can be a little tricky so you’ll have to gather the sleeve over your hand as you work.

When you get to the end near the cuff, just continue the felling as far as you can beneath the cuff.

Here’s the completed seam. On to finishing the cuff!

As you can see, there’s just a little bit of the cuff near the rear seam that needs to be dealt with.

Fold the remaining raw edge under and baste secure.

With everything basted closed, top stitch the cuff along the outer edge about 1/8″ from the edge, followed by the inner edge.

Here are the completed sleeves. There are just a few more steps to do on the coat before we attach them in the next section.

While there are a few little things to do on the coat body itself, I like a little change of pace at this point and so turn towards the sleeves. If you haven’t drafted and fit a test version of the sleeves in muslin, I’d recommend doing that before cutting out the linen sleeves.

The main two points of fitting are in the length, which should be an inch or so past the wrist, and the sleeve head area, which should be about an inch or two larger in diameter than the armscye to give some ease of movement, and make it easier to gather the material into the armscye.

Begin by basting the two halves of the sleeves, right sides together, along the front seam.

Sew with a 1/2″ seam allowance.

Press open the seam, and then press the seam allowances under as usual.

Fell the folded edges by hand.

Attaching the collar is fairly simple, but involves some special techniques with basting stitches to help the collar and lapel roll in towards the body.

Place the topcollar on the undercollar, right sides together, aligning the center back seams and the outer edges.

Baste from the center back to the outer edges.

Along the shorter ends, baste all the way to the very edge of the cloth so there will be as little movement as possible. This makes the sewing more accurate.

Turn the coat over so that the wrong side of the undercollar is showing. It’s easier to do the layout and sewing from this side.

Now along both corners of the collar, and the short ends along their entire length, draw in the seam lines. Ideally these will be 1/2″ from the edge, but as in my case, they may be slightly off. You want the seams to end just at the point at the end of the clips in the coat front.

So in my case, one seam is 1/2″, and the other is more like 1/4″ due to my error.

Then draw in the curved corners of the collar using the same template or device you used for the curves in the facings.

Stitch along the lines from the point on one end of the collar, around the curved corner, along the top of the collar, and around and back to the opposite point.

Trim the seam allowances down to about 1/8″ at each curve.

Now turn the collar right side out. The topcollar should overhang the undercollar by 1/16″ to 1/8″. Baste along the outside edge and press.

Now here’s where that basting technique comes into play. Begin by marking the roll line very lightly on the topcollar if you have not done so already. Just be very light because it will be visible on the finished coat.

Then on the outer edge, with the collar flat on the table, baste along the outside of the roll line, about 1/4″ from the line. Begin and end the stitching about 1′ from the ends of the collar so that you have room to turn under the raw edges later.

Now roll the collar under itself as if it were being worn. You can finger press it lightly if you want to, but I’d leave the final pressing for later.

Now baste along the lower or inner side of the roll line, about 1/4″ to 1/2″ away, while keeping the collar in this folded position. Baste from end to end, again keeping about 1″ from the ends. Try not to catch the folded half of the collar underneath with your basting stitches.

The most important goal here is to get the right amount of tension and ease between the under and top collar as it curves over the roll line.

After basting, you can open the collar up and see the tension you’ve built into the collar, just with those few stitches. This will keep the collar rolled tightly against the neck and the body.

Now to close up the collar, fold under the raw edge, aligning the fold with the seam underneath – just barely covering it.

Baste securely.

Earlier, you folded and basted the neck line of the facing out of the way. If necessary, remove the basting, refold the facing so it touches the edge of the collar, and rebaste. I had to do this on one side, the other side just happened to line up naturally.

Now starting at one end of the collar, use a ladder stitch to stitch the collar and the facing together, and to the material underneath, as follows:

First make a stitch parallel to the seam, about 1/8″ long at most, in the folded edge of the collar.

Then repeat the same stitch right next to it on the facing side.

Then take a stitch ‘in the ditch’, catching the undercollar layer underneath, to lock all of the layers and pieces together. Repeat the process, stitching through the collar, facing, and in the ditch, until you get to the end of the facing section.

When you get to the back section, where the facing ends, simply fell the collar to the back of the neck. The stitch should be perpendicular to the seam on the right side, and the diagonal part of the stitch should be hidden underneath within the layers.

And thus completes the collar! How are you doing so far?