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).

Why?

Why I’m so obsessed with sleeves?

Very simple – my eyes are tired. I see all the sleeve design mistakes on myself, and on other people. And people complain all the time. Sleeves don’t fit; sleeves don’t feel comfortable. And for me, if sleeves are not cut well, the whole look is spoiled.

It is not like all the clothes do have badly designed sleeves, far from it. But a lot. And it doesn’t always depend on the price, or the label. And it’s not only ready-to-wear (RTW from now on), it’s the same with the patterns for home sewing.

Let’s take a look at some pictures. First – from decent to good to perfect. RTW, prices range from $44 to about $1,000.

 

 

See, how these sleeves hang? These sleeves have correct width; folds on these sleeves are vertical, parallel to the underarm seam.  On some sleeves there are some diagonal folds, but not too bad, and sometimes it’s difficult to say if the folds are due to the bad cut or to the body position of the model. Pay particular attention to the underarm area, see how beautifully most of these sleeves hang there? 

Now, let's take a look at the bad and ugly:

 

See all these diagonal folds? See how wide these sleeves are in the bicep area?

And here are good sleeves for home sewing:

See? Different styles, different fabrics, different amount of ease, from different pattern companies. One thing in common - good cut of the sleeve. Wool jacket, denim jacket, jersey, shirt, blouse, doesn't matter. When it's good, it IS good.

And now bad and ugly:

All the same problems - diagonal folds, too wide in the bicep area, bad fit, and these sleeves hang badly. Would you like to sew from these patterns? I won't.

How does it happen? All the problems with badly cut sleeves above are coming from the same source - sleeve cap is too low. Here are schematics:

On the left you see a sleeve schematics with the sleeve cap that has an appropriate height. On the left - the sleeve cap is too low. To be able to set this sleeve in we need to make the sleeve wider, so that the sleeve cap will have the same perimeter length. Note, that we have exactly the same armhole for both sleeves. Then, when you close the armhole and insert the sleeve into it, it'll be like this:

And you'll have to pull the sleeve with short sleeve cap up. The result - ugly folds. Another thing that happens - the angle at which the sleeve is attached to the body of the garment changes. It changes from this:

to this:

Two things do happen then:

1. Since no one goes around with arms outstretched, folds form in the underarm area. True, such sleeve may have wider range of movement, but well  designed sleeve with taller sleeve cap will have good range of movement.  Besides, range of movement depends not only on the width of the sleeve, but also on the depth of the armhole. And it doesn't help if proportion between the two are wrong.

2. If the designer didn't take care to make special sleeve length adjustments (and designers who  are bad enough to design sleeves with caps too low are usually not good enough to do such adjustments) the underarm seam will be too long.

Here is a fine example of such sleeve:

See the folds in the underarm? See how much extra fabric is there? Overarm part of the sleeve has correct length, but underarm seam is way too long.  In my view this sleeve is just plain ugly.

And here is a blouse with wide sleeves designed properly:

No ugly folds, no excess fabric in the bicep and underarm, comfortable width, good range of movement. Just plain perfect.

I think Chanel would fire someone who designed this sleeve on spot:

 

And here is a good one:

The problem with all this is that in life bad things have a tendency to become normal. Just one generation of designers who grew up on RTW and we have all these problems with design. One more generation and nobody will even know how clothes are supposed to fit. To keep things going in good way requires constant work against entropy, otherwise it takes over. 

This is why I write this blog.

Getting puzzled.

I took a look at the patterns in knitting magazines. And what I see – in almost all patterns the sleeve cap is shorter than armhole by some 3”. Well, I think, it’s too much difference. It should be some 1.5-2”, but 3”?…

And then I’m asked a question – why sleeve cap is always shorter than armhole? To answer this question, let’s take a look at the sleeve and the armhole. Yes, the sleeve cap is shorter than the armhole, but armhole has to bend over the curve of the sleeve cap and come to the middle of the top flat part of the sleeve. And the perimeter of the front and back armhole parts must be equal the perimeter of the sleeve, since, unlike sewing patterns, when we knit we don’t need ease for the sleeve cap due to the stretch of the knit fabric.

How much shorter? There is a universal answer to such questions – it depends.

It depends on what? 

On number of things – on gauge, on garment style, on garment size. On stitch pattern – garter stitch can absorb a lot of horizontal and vertical inconsistencies; ribbing also has quite a stretch and you can do a sleeve that would be too wide or too narrow in stockinette and be perfectly OK in ribbing. If you want to use some dense stitch pattern, say linen stitch, it’s completely different story, not so much forgiveness here. What to do? How to decide and how to design?

Nowadays when we need to do some research we go to Google. It’s overwhelming, and it’s not enough at the same time. I kept running into the same blogs and the same design advices, and my curiosity was not satisfied. Someone says that vintage patterns usually have higher sleeve caps than contemporary designs. Let’s take a look.

It’s difficult. Instructions are written in completely different way, no schematics. Armholes are usually given in the same way as now – work even until you reach the full armhole height. But sleeve caps – continue to decrease until you have 17 sts remaining. How many rows? Figure it out yourself. And so I do.  I left out patterns with padded shoulders, puffy sleeves, and really oversized patterns. Many vintage patterns are quite difficult, if at all possible to access – no row gauge given; unclear instructions without measurements given; such things. And considering the picture quality of the past, it is difficult to see how sleeve actually fits a human body.

It looks like generally yes, in vintage patterns the sleeve cap/armhole ratio is quite different from what we see today. The sleeve cap/armhole ratio range I obtained is between 53% and 93%. The average is 74%. 

 

In recent knitting magazines I have seen sleeve cap armhole ratio as low as 31%; mostly between 50% and 65% with several exceptions, like 76%; 84% and 92%; the average is 62%. The totally best fitting sleeve had ratio of 74%. 

How did this shift in design happened? I don’t know. Couldn’t find the answer, maybe I don’t know where to look for it.

Well, where to go next? I decide to try to get an answer from professionals – ready-to-wear designers. Ready-to-wear industry employs professional pattern drafters and pattern graders. These people have training, they have access to statistical data on human body measurements, and sophisticated pattern grading software is being developed. And among these professionals there are people who specialize entirely on stretch fabrics.

Armed with a measuring tape and a ruler I head to the mall. I have visited several stores, from Target to Ralf Lauren, and measured knit sweaters in gauge and designs comparable with hand-knit sweaters and in a range of sizes.

Sleeve cap height was easy – just measure overarm measurement, than underarm seam and subtract the second from the first.

Armhole height is trickier. First I would find a horizontal part of the sleeve-body seam. Then I put a ruler at this level perpendicular to the side seam; then I have measured from the ruler to the shoulder.

I have recorded measurements for each sweater separately. At home I have calculated the sleeve cap to armhole ratio. 

Result:  the sleeve cap/armhole ratio across the brands and sizes was between 75% and 83%; average was 77%. 

It piqued my curiosity and I decided to do more research.