Frustration with sleeves in PMB

I have been drafting for two days, trying to finalize my settings for a jacket, and getting quite frustrated! It’s those little things that drive me crazy. I determined the appropriate underarm depth (ah depth) and sleeve cap height. Then, I decided to make the sleeve hem wider than the 7” it started with. Well, making the sleeve hem 10” makes the sleeve 1” narrower across the top of the sleeve! A full inch!!! That is just ridiculous! I’ve known it was like that, but it just made me mad! There is no reason that widening the sleeve hem should narrow the top. The underarm seams SHOULD pivot at the underarm point, not several inches lower. PERIOD.

So I messed around with the cap height setting until I returned the top portion of the sleeve to its previous shape and size (as it had been with the 7” hem width). Good. Now I know I can use an ah depth of -.75 and a cap height of -.5 as my 'basic draft (with a 10" wide sleeve).

Then I considered using the SHOULDER PRINCESS style line. Well, that raised the underarm depth .25”!
And--- it changed the sleeve’s cap height, too!
So, once again, I had to mess with armhole depth and cap height settings, just to duplicate the sleeve that drafts with my basic side-darted bodice…the sleeve with a 7” hem!

So basically, I cannot say what underarm depth is good for me, nor what cap height, because that varies with every little setting I choose! And that is just ridiculous!!!

It just shouldn’t be this hard!
Rotating a bust dart should NOT change the armhole or sleeve!
Widening the sleeve hem should NOT change the top of the sleeve!

(Can you tell I am frustrated?)




Sorry.

Ok, so then, I get everything finally decided on and saved. But the jacket design calls for a 2pc sleeve. My PMB 2pc sleeve is awful….the under-sleeve actually curves the wrong way! As if my elbow bends forward…I am not double jointed! :)

So I have spent HOURS trying to figure out how to make a 2pc sleeve for this jacket.

I have an old McCall’s jacket pattern with a 2pc sleeve, so I pulled it out. I figured I would compare the armholes of the Mc jacket pattern to my PMB pattern and if they were similar, I would use that McCall’s sleeve. Well, the armholes were NOT even close!

So I cut out the Mc pattern and pinned the tissue together to try on, thinking maybe I would just try to use that whole pattern instead of my PMB pattern.

What a laugh!

No, I am better off using my PMB pattern, for sure! I would have to severely alter every piece of that McCall’s pattern…and truly, I don’t even know what size to start with! I haven’t used commercial patterns in years, because I have used PMB. The reason I bought PMB in the first place was because the commercial patterns didn’t fit me and I didn’t know what to do to make them fit me…this was 10 years ago, before the internet brought sewists together for sharing such skills! I have never really learned what to do to alter a commercial pattern *for me*. I have depended on PMB. And most of the time, I get a decent fit.

But sleeves continue to be my Achilles heel! I can make sleeveless things in PMB all day, but when it comes to garments with sleeves, I get so frustrated!!! It takes twice as long to create the pattern, because every little variable changes the sleeve…when it just SHOULDN’T be that way!!!

The next version of PMB is in the works…ready for an October release. I hope the sleeves have been stabilized; hope it includes a decent 2pc sleeve!!!