In this post, we are going to talk about Shoulders! Specifically, how to do a Wide/Square and Narrow/Sloped Shoulder Adjustments for a Raglan sleeve, but I'd like to quickly touch on shoulders in all of their manifestations.
Shoulders can be broad or narrow, meaning the actual LENGTH of the pattern's shoulder line needs to be longer or shorter to accommodate. Shoulders can be square or sloped, meaning that the ANGLE of the shoulder is more horizontal or vertical than that of the pattern. Shoulders can also be forward or backward, meaning that the shoulder line of the pattern needs to shifted forward or backward to match the line of the wearer. A Raglan sleeve differs wildly from a set in sleeve because there is no shoulder seam. Forward/backward makes no difference without a shoulder seam. And square/sloped are the same adjustment as wide/narrow because in both cases, you are either needing to add more room or less. The room is added/subtracted to the same place - mid sleeve cap.
For a visual explanation of these differences, check out this video:
If you would like to follow along with me on video, you can find us over on YouTube:
First, you're going to draw in the seam allowances all around the sleeve. Next, draw a horizontal line from under arm seam allowance point to under arm seam allowance point. Find the approximate center of that line either by estimating, or by folding the sleeve in half vertically. Mark that point.
Now to draw the rest of the lines. Find the approximate halfway point of the back armscye, and draw a line from that point to the center point. Do the same for the front armscye. Last, draw a line from the center point to the seam allowance neck point.
You have five pivot points at the seam allowances of each line you drew. Cut into the seam/hem allowances to, but not through, each pivot point. That will give us nicely moving hinges. Cut the horizontal line from seam allowance to seam allowance, cutting to, but not through where you made your snips.
Make three more cuts from the center point out each line you drew. Again, cut to but not through the seam allowances. You now have moving parts with which to do our adjustment!
BROAD/SQUARE SHOULDER ADJUSTMENT:
Anchor the bottom part of the sleeve with a pattern weight or whatever you've got handy. You are going to slowly push the armscye hinges away from the center front. As you do so, the top two pieces will overlap the bottom two pieces. You want to overlap those points evenly and by the amount you wish to add. For example, if you are adding 1/2" total, each upper point should overlap the bottom point by 1/4".
As you make this adjustment, you are adding both length (broad) and width (square) to the shoulder area. Place a piece of paper behind your new pattern piece, and redraw. That's it! You're all done!
NARROW/SLOPED SHOULDER ADJUSTMENT:
Anchor the bottom part of the sleeve with a pattern weight or whatever you've got handy. You are going to slowly push the armscye hinges in to the center front. As you do so, the top two pieces will overlap each other and the bottom two pieces will overlap the static sleeve bottom. You want to overlap those points evenly and by the amount you wish to remove. For example, if you are removing 1/2" total, each upper point should overlap the other by 1/4".
As you make this adjustment, you are removing both length (narrow) and width (sloped) to the shoulder area. Place a piece of paper behind your new pattern piece, and redraw. That's it! You're all done!
Happy Making!
Rachelle