I’ve seen several requests in the FB group for doing a long sleeve on the Everyday Tee.
Well fret no more my friends, the blog explaining it has arrived! It’s actually a pretty simple hack so let’s get right down to it.
You’ll need the Everyday Tee pattern (obviously) and the Twist it Up Top pattern We will be taking the long sleeve pattern piece as well as the cuff piece from the Twist it Up to use on our Everyday Tee.
Start with cutting out your pieces for the Everyday Tee. In these photos, I've used the fitted version. Next cut out only the sleeve and cuff from the Twist it Up top.
Lay your front and back pattern piece for the Everyday Tee on top of each other, the sleeve width should be the same. Lay the sleeve piece from the Twist it Up Top next to as shown in the picture.
Now let’s mark the seam allowance on the main body pieces, for these patterns it is ¼”. These are indicated with black arrows on the top and bottom of the sleeve edge. Mark the same seam allowance on the bottom of the actual sleeve piece. You don’t need to mark on the top because the sleeve is cut on the fold therefore no seam allowance. Be sure to line up the top of the sleeve (the fold side) with the seam allowance mark on the body of the shirt.
I transferred the seam allowance mark for the sleeve onto the pattern piece for the body of the shirt to make things easier (as indicated by the blue arrow).
Take the measurement between the blue arrow and the black arrow BELOW it. This will indicate how much you need to widen the sleeve in order to fit on the bodice. Mine was ⅜”.
Place your sleeve pattern piece on a scrap piece of paper or transfer paper.
Add the measurement from just before (mine was ⅜”) to the seam side of your pattern piece. Then, using a ruler, draw a line from that mark to a little below the lengthen shorten line. This will create a nice gradual grading.
Cut out your new pattern piece using the line you drew.
You now have a new sleeve pattern piece that will fit on the bodice nicely.
Go find that lovely fabric you’ve selected for your new long sleeve shirt and cut out all your pattern pieces.
For construction you will just sew the sleeve on after you have sewn the shoulder seams together. When you sew the side seam you’ll start at the bottom of the sleeve and sew up the sleeve and down the side seam. The cuff can be attached after that.
Note: This sleeve requires a cuff so don’t forget to cut that out as well. If you would prefer no cuff be sure to add the length of the cuff to the END of your sleeve pattern piece and include a hem allowance.
ALSO, if you normally add length to sleeves of Ellie and Mac pattern you will want to double check that as well. I sometimes need to add ½” to 1” depending on the pattern because of my gloriously longer arms.
Now go make all the beautiful long sleeve Everyday Tees and share your makes in the Facebook group!!!!!
Happy Sewing!
-Sam
