Frustration

I am disappointed, and more than a tad annoyed with myself.

But I digress.  Let's go back to the beginning.

I sewed up the first Mermaid sleeve, and it was lovely.  I love the shape of the sleeve, the way the short rows create drape and a bit of a curve in the underarm shaping of the sleeve cap.  I love the bit of curve at the top of the sleeve.  This is not part of the pattern, I needed a bit more fullness across the shoulder lines so I added three short-row ridges across the top of the sleeve cap on either side of the dark gray stripe.  I really like the shape it gives the sleeve.

The sleeve went into the body of the sweater beautifully and hangs really nicely when worn. 

Sorry about the fuzzy picture, darkness has fallen and the light is a little thin.  The flat photo is much more clear.

But the sleeve is too long! 



Where did I go wrong?

Well, it is obvious that I mis-measured, even after going through sewing up the body, trying it on and checking the sleeve length.  I was right about the extra width at the sleeve cap and that is fine.  But something went terribly wrong with the sleeve length and I can't help thinking I should have known better.

Perhaps I should have just drawn out a paper pattern from the diagram and measured that.  I know pretty well how patterns work and how long to make my sleeves.  But I checked the figures, and checked, or thought I thought I checked, how the measurements were being taken.  I had help from G because it is very hard to measure a sleeve length on oneself, but I can't completely blame him.  In fact the length we measured still seemed short according to my sewing notes and the sleeve length I usually use when sewing garments. 


So what happened?  does the sleeve stretch that much when it is hanging (remember that the sleeve is knit side to side so the stretch of the knitting will be down the length of the sleeve).  That might explain why the sleeve seemed unusually short in the diagram, the stretch was planned in to the garment. 

But what do I do now?  Do I reknit the sleeve?  I really had wanted to avoid that.  Do I just turn it up and make a cuff?



It actually looks nice with a cuff.   I think if I had made mermaid longer through the body (which would look very good on me) and not shortened the godets so they have less flare (because the sweater was too short) it would have a more feminine flare and the cuffs would seem incongruous.  But on this version, on me, they seem to look good. I haven't put the i-cord edge on yet and I could apply that and stitch the cuff to the body of the sleeve simultaneously.  The underside of the stripe would show on the cuff, and I could re-seam the bottom edge so that the seam allowance is inside the turned up portion of the cuff instead of on the outside, as it is in the above photo.

Will having the cuff remind me that I messed up big time?  Or will it remind me of the unexpected variables in life and how I managed to save the sweater?

I need to think on this a little bit.

Comments

[Carol]

Personally I like the cuff too ... but you need to do what YOU like and will wear happily. I can't wait to see some photos of the finished Mermaid - I love this and may attempt it at some point myself.

[Susan]

Could you turn it inside as a hem? I'm not sure about the cuff.

[Liana]

The cuff looks good to me, but if you really think it will bother you every time you wear it, I suppose you'd do better to fix it. Only you know whether this is true. I would definitely have cuffs, but that's just me. I love your sleeve shaping, too.