I've been wanting to move my blog away from Blogspot for a while but could never be bothered to actually do it. This week was the tipping point though, and I've now fully migrated over to https://patsypoomakes.wordpress.com/ . The blogspot address will remain here but all new posts will only appear at https://patsypoomakes.wordpress.com/ . There are lots of reasons for the move but my biggest one is how hard Blogger has made it for people to subscribe to receive new posts via email. It's such a basic requirement but apparently, they think it's too much to offer. I'm basing this purely on how I myself prefer to consume this stuff. I can't be arsed with feed readers anymore and emails are easy and convenient. When I receive one, if I fancy reading it, I will click through to it and, if not, I'll just delete it. Another reason is the spat between Google (owners of Blogger) and Instagram/Facebook/Meta. I don't even know if this is still the case anymore ...
Yesterday, while I was working on my shirt - yes, another! - I decided to do a quick photo tutorial to post on my Instagram stories. I was sewing my sleeve plackets and I thought I'd post it here as well. Tower plackets can be really fiddly to sew and I remember from my beginner days how baffling the illustrations on instruction booklets can be, especially if you've never sewn one.
Just a couple of disclaimers before we dive in: these photos are all from my sewing room and taken with my phone, so the lighting isn't the best. Also, I had already started sewing before I decided to document the process, so for the first couple of pictures, I'm already a few steps ahead. Right, let's go!
Firstly, ignore that slash you can see here. As I said, I was already a few steps ahead by this point. What you need to do first is fold the outer edges of your placket by whatever your pattern specifies (mine is 6mm) and press in place. You also need to press the top of your tower as shown.
Next, you should place your placket and sleeve WRONG SIDES UP. The tower portion of your placket should sit towards the front of your sleeve (the side that has the single notch on the sleeve head, rather than the double). In this case, the front of my sleeve is the right-hand side, which is the side my tower is on. I should point out that my fabric here is reversible and I'm making a contrasting placket. That's why it looks like my pieces are both wrong sides together. Remember WRONG SIDE UP for both pieces.
Back with this photo again, you should align both slash marks (from the sleeve and from the placket), pin in place and stitch all the way around the slit mark at 6mm. I use a quarter inch foot for this to keep it accurate. When you're done, cut the slit open but not all the way to the top. Stop about 6mm from the top and then cut diagonally towards the corners of your stitching line. It's best not to cut into your stitching but if you do nick a bit of it, it's not all bad in this case.
Bring the lower placket (the bit without the point) towards the middle, as shown above.
You should be looking at something similar to the picture above. Get ready to do the same again on the tower side.
It helps to press this down to keep it in place. You may also have to readjust the points of your tower for the sake of symmetry.
Now... I passionately advise against pins for this. It's too small an area for them and they distort the fabric big time. My favourite thing to hold these things down is a Pritt stick - or any other washable glue stick. I apply the glue to the side I'm about to sew - in this case, the left - the point/tower bit and down to where the pin is on the opposite side. That pin is marking the end of my sleeve opening. If you run the iron over the glue, it sets straight away.
Before we take this to the machine and while the pin is still marking the end of the slit, we should make a mark to follow when we need to stitch across. I used a frixion pen, which disappears with heat. You can use a chalk marker, a water-soluble or air erasable pen. Just make sure it's something that will disappear eventually. Now you can take this to the machine and edgestitch as you can see below.
You can start or end on the red dot. I can't remember which is which but I always do the right sleeve one way and the left the other. It's because of how I find it easier to keep my edgestitching consistent. If you start at the red dot, sew a couple of stitches down, pivot, sew across, pivot, sew up and so on. Just make sure when you sew down that long line you will be sewing over those first couple of stitches to lock them in. If you are finishing at the red dot, you will need to back tack to lock your stitches in.
And this is it. One side is done, one side to go. Bear in mind that everything will be mirrored for the other sleeve but I hope this is helpful. I'll come back sometime this week to show you the full shirt which is now finished and I love it.