Jersey sleeves (continued)

Let's take a look at both sleeves (for woven fabric and for jersey) side by side one more time:

 

I put a horizontal red line to show how much taller the sleeve for woven fabric is (the sleeve on the left); and a vertical red line on the sleeve on the right shows how much wider the jersey sleeve is. Note, that jersey sleeve, the one on the right , is shown as half sleeve, you have to mentally double the difference in width.

So, why the length from the center of the neck on the back, over the shoulder and down the arm for the jersey garment is planned less than for the woven fabric?

Part of it might be that the jersey fabric qualities are different from the qualities of the woven fabric. Jersey fabric is more fluid, has more drape and stays closer to the body.  And part of the shortening of the sleeve might be compensated by the stretch in the shoulder width. 

Another quality of the jersey fabric (as well as hand-knit fabric) is two-way stretch. Two-way stretch means that the fabric may be stretched both vertically and horizontally. RTW industry, always aiming to cut costs, tries to save money by cutting sleeves shorter. If you are cutting one garment, than 1" in length is not a big deal for you; if you are cutting by the thousands - it translates into many yards and additional garments, that is money savings.

But, and it is a really big but, my everyday experience and common sense tell me that it is not so simple with the two-way stretch as RTW people want us to believe. 

First, I know that what you gain in width, you lose in length and vice versa.   It means, you can't cut the sleeves shorter in hope that they will stretch longer to the size. 

Second, my experience tells me that knit fabric tends to stretch more width-wise than lengthwise. And, as it stretches in width, it loses in length. I do own a number of T-shirts that became too wide and too short for me to wear comfortably. 

And third, we tend to stretch our clothes horizontally as we wear them. As you put on your T-shirt, you stretch it horizontally, just think about your movements for a moment; you do many more horizontal movements with your arms than vertical ones; and so on. Even with woven fabric I have noticed that sleeves and pats legs tend to become shorter with wear. So, for me it just totally doesn't make sense, other than cost cutting attempt to make sleeves in knit fabric shorter than in woven fabric. 

If anyone can give me good reasons why sleeves in knit fabric are to be cut sorter than in woven fabric, please, do so. I'm always open to discussion. 

Another possible reason to  make jersey sleeve caps shorter and the sleeve itself wider is putting sleeves and the body of jersey fabric together. It is easier to sew in flattened,  lower sleeve cap than a tall sleeve cap. This means less skilled workers are required.

Then, as I studied the sleeves side by side, I got one more puzzling surprise.
Looks like it's never going to stop.

Basic block for jersey and knit fabrics.

I have drafted the basic easy fitting block for jersey and knitted fabrics since it looks like the closest to hand-knit fabric in the amount of ease required for the standard fit sweater.

The instructions say: A block with 2 cm ease allowance for easy fitting tee shirts, tops and dresses (first bracket). Here it is:

This block is simplified as compared to the basic block for woven fabric. The front and back are the same except for the neckline; no bust darts; no shoulder darts; the armholes are the same for front and back; and the sleeve is symmetrical, so only one half of the sleeve is drafted.

In the table I summarized the measurements for sleeves and armholes:

	Close fitting block (bust measurement+10 cm/4" overall ease)	Jersey basic block (bust measurement+8 cm /3⅛" overall ease)
back armhole height	18 cm (7 ")	19.4 cm (7 ⅝")
armhole depth	11.3 cm (4 ½")	10 cm (4")
sleeve cap height	14 cm (5 ½")	11.5 cm (4 ½")
sleeve width	33.8 cm (13 ½")	37.2 cm (14 ⅝")
bicep measurement	28.4 cm (11 ⅝")	28.4 cm (11 ⅝")
sleeve ease (sleeve width measurement minus bicep  measurement)	5.4 cm (2⅛")	8.8 cm (3 ½")

Here is what we have for jersey basic easy fitting block compared to the fitted block for woven fabric:

•  the overall ease allowance is less;
• armhole is higher;
• sleeve cap is lower; 
• sleeve itself is wider in the bicep area;
• significantly more ease in the sleeve;

So, easy fitting jersey block has less overall ease, but significantly more ease for the sleeve. Let’s do some calculations. 

For the close fitting sleeve we have ease allowance that is 54% of the overall ease; for the jersey we have sleeve ease allowance  that is more than overall ease, 110% to be exact. It is huge amount of ease.  Armhole is also noticeably higher. Sleeve cap is significantly lower. If you make the sleeve cap so much lower than the armhole height, you have to do your sleeve wider to achieve the same sleeve cap perimeter as armhole has.

Then there is one more interesting difference:

Sleeve length for woven fabric block is 58.6 cm (23 ¹/₁₆").

Sleeve length for jersey block is 56.4 cm (22 ⅜").

Do we really need shorter sleeves for jersey garments?  I don’t think so. In the basic block I would expect sleeves to be the same length.

But for the sleeve to reach the same point on the arm the length of the sleeve is not the only factor – we need to consider the total distance from the center of the neck on the back, over the shoulder and down the arm. Let’s see:

·         for the woven fabric basic block we have: 7.2+13.3+58.6=79.1 cm (31 ⅛")

·         for the jersey basic block: 7.6+11.2+56.4=75.2 cm (29 ⅝")

·         the difference is 3.9 cm (1 ⅝")

This is a serious difference in the suggested length of the sleeve. Why?

I feel like I’m 5 years old. I’m asking ‘Why?’ all the time, non-stop.