One thing I have noticed in the last couple of jackets that I have made and I am wondering if anyone else has found this too. Since it has happened on at least four jackets, I am thinking this is not just me, but must be something in the pattern draft.
In the past, I have always found the back of a sleeve to have more ease than the front of the sleeve. This makes sense, since it is the back that needs the extra fabric as you move your arms forward. But in the past several jackets that I have made, all of the sleeves had no ease in the back but they have ease in the front. This means that you are trying to ease in fullness on the front of the garment, not a place that I would expect to do this.
My solution was to ease stitch the sleeve twice in order to shrink it up, then I set in the sleeve matching notches, underarm seam. I eased as much sleeve to the front as I could, but then let the notch at the top of the sleeve fall where it would. This ended up with the top of the sleeve falling slightly (about 3/4") towards the back of the garment. This didn't affect the fit at all, and allowed me to set in the sleeve without puckers. I would surely have had puckers in the front sleeve if I hadn't moved that point.
If you have found this, I would be interested to know. It seems definitely wrong to me. Why do we need ease in the front of a sleeve, between the single notch and the shoulder? Surely that ease should be placed in the back. Is this a new styling (I doubt) or is it poor drafting (I suspect). Let me know if you have found this too. Surely I can't be the only one.
