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.

Flat cutting, easy fitting

The table of contents of the ‘The Metric Pattern Cutting for Women’s Wear’ book says:

“Part two: Flat cutting. (Cutting flat shapes for casual and jersey garments)”

Well, frankly, I thought that all patterns for all garments are cut flat. Just because you have a flat piece of fabric laid on the table to cut. Apparently, the author of the book has something different in mind.

Then there are chapters:

“9   Easy fitting garments (woven fabrics)

10   Basic and easy fitting garments (jersey and knitted fabrics)

11   Close fitting garments (stretch and jersey fabrics)”

I think Chapter 10 and Chapter 11 are exactly what I need. But first – what actually is ‘cutting flat shapes’ and ‘easy fitting garments’?

There is an answer in the introduction to this chapter: “flat cutting without using dart shaping or close fitting waist shaping”. OK, so it’s easy fitting for a designer, not for the customer. Very simple to cut, very cheap to produce, not so nice to wear. 

 

Then the introduction says: “They [the easy fitting pattern blocks] are the base for most sportswear and weatherwear garments, but they can also be used as a means to create innovative shapes.”  If I understand it correctly, sportswear is what in American English is usually referred as activewear; and weatherwear is something to wear to protect oneself from rain, wind and snow on a camping trip. I’m totally OK with such garments to be cut without shaping. Besides, the author of the book says that these ‘flat cutting’ blocks are frequently used for production in sizes S-M-L-X-L etc. instead of smaller increments as for sizes 2-4-6-8 etc. So, these simplified, flat cutting, easy fitting blocks are not so good as a base for custom patterns.

What I do not like is that there are so many everyday garments cut flat and ‘easy fitting’.  As any woman with bra cup size over B knows very well, it’s not a good idea to get rid of bust darts. And I do not like the air balloon on the back, since front and back are cut the same width, but front requires more fabric than back to go around bust. And, in addition, such ‘easy fitting’ style requires deep armholes, not my favorite. 

As for innovative shapes – these may be created starting anywhere, be it any of the basic cutting blocks or just a plain piece of fabric. The key is to be innovative, not what to use as a base.

I didn’t do the block for the woven easy fit garment. What I can see on the diagram in the book is that the armhole is noticeably wider and deeper than in close fitting block; and the sleeve is noticeably wider and sleeve cap is much lower than in close fitting block.

Next step – Chapter 10   Basic and easy fitting garments (jersey and knitted fabrics).

Sleeve pattern RTW

To learn more about pattern drafting I bought a book “Metric Pattern Cutting for Women’s Wear” by Winifred Aldrich, Blackwell publishing, 5^th edition, 2008. It’s a textbook used in the UK design schools. I bought the British textbook for one simple reason – I live in metrics. I grew up in Russia, where only metric system is used and I have hard time with American measure units. I constantly translate everything into metrics, inches into centimeters and Fahrenheit into Celsius. It is easier for me to draft in centimeters and then translate the final results than re-calculate everything back and forth. And I believe that the basic principles of pattern drafting are the same for the American and British designers. If there are the differences, they can’t be too big. 

Since this is the book for drafting patterns for the Ready-To-Wear (RTW) garments, the size of the bust dart is given in the table along with the standard measurements. 

So, I set out to draft a pattern according to the standard measurements used by the industry for the size 8 American, or 12 British. The directions for the front and back are very similar to that given in my Russian book and in the “Finally it Fits” book.  But the sleeve is built in a different way.  

First, I have drafted what is called ‘The close fitting bodice block’. It is a very basic pattern block that has only vertical bust dart and back shoulder dart. It doesn’t have side or waist darts. This block is the base for all other tailored patterns. Here is how it looks like:

The next instruction is to measure the armscye with a flexible ruler.  Then the sleeve cap is built based on this measurement and the width of the sleeve is determined by it. Here is what I have as a result:

Then I decided to draft the sleeve for this bodice based on the armhole height, as in my Russian pattern book and in "finally it Fits" book. I measured the average height of the armhole and made a sleeve as directed in the “Finally it Fits” book. Here is a comparison table:

	“Metric Pattern Cutting for Women’s Wear”	“Finally it Fits”
Bust measurement	88 cm (34 ⅝ in)	88 cm (34 ⅝ in)
Bicep 28.5 cm (11 ¼ in)	28.5 cm (11 ¼ in)	28.5 cm (11 ¼ in)
Armhole depth	21cm + 0.5 cm (8 ¼ in + 3/16) for ease	21cm + 0.5 cm (8 ¼ in + 3/16) for ease
Sleeve width	33.8 cm (13 ¼ in)	32 cm (12 ⅝ in)
Sleeve cap height	5.3 cm (2 ⅛ in)	15 cm (5 ⅞ in)
Ease	5.3 cm (2 ⅛ in)	3.5 cm (1 ⅜ in)
Sleeve cap to armhole ratio	0.65	0.69

 

I’m OK with both sleeves. My personal preference would be a little narrower sleeve with higher sleeve cap, but the sleeves are very close in size and both may fit well. Either sleeve will work as a base. The final sleeve pattern will depend on the style of the garment, fabric used, personal preferences, etc.

As we can see the sleeve cap to armhole height ratio is approximately 65 to 70%. We have to remember this range.