Building The Sleeves…
I purchased duck canvas for the Flak Vest, but after receiving it, I’m thinking that the sleeves wouldn’t look quite right in that type of fabric because it’s very stiff. So, I had some plain black cotton fabric in my stash that I’m going to try to use for the sleeve parts.
Transferring the sleeve pattern to the fabric. To be safe, I am adding 2 inches to the edge of the fabric, which should give me enough for any adjustments I need to make.
First piece, marked up. I also left 1/2 inch on the sleeve end to be used for the hem.
First piece cut out…
First piece, pinned to a new piece of fabric. I’ll just cut out the remaining sleeve pieces, using the same process. I need 4, total.
Two down…
All four pieces cut.
All four pieces got ironed so they’re nice and flat.
The edge of the sleeve doesn’t have a visible hem. So, I need to make the hem “hidden”. I’m not a seamstress, so I have no idea what the proper term for it is…
I stacked two pieces of fabric, and marked a 1/2 inch line with a wax crayon.
Then, it was pinned…
Then, sewn.
Second sleeve sewn.
Both sleeve hems completed.
The first side of the hem was folded over, and pressed with an iron.
Then, the other side of the hem was folded over and pressed with an iron.
The result.
After finishing the hem on both sleeves, it’s time to add in the padding. I’m going to make the sewn lines 1 inch apart. I don’t want a line to run at the very top of the sleeve, so I aligned it so that the center point of the sleeve (in my case, at 9 1/2 inches) falls in the middle of where two lines will be.
I made my first guide line at 9 inches.
I cut a piece of batting, and made one edge perfectly straight. The straight edge was then placed right up into the hem edge.
The top piece of fabric was then brought back down to sandwich the batting in between the two pieces of fabric.
The excess batting was then removed.
In order to keep the two pieces of fabric and the batting all in place, I pinned them all together along the line to be sewn.
Tip #1: When pinning all of the layers together, make sure there is NO bunching or stretching. Try to keep everything aligned, relaxed, and as flat as you can.
First line sewn, and second line marked and pinned.
Tip #2: When marking the lines, in order to keep them a consistent width, you will need to mark them one at a time, AFTER you sew each one. If you mark them all in one shot, and then sew them, they will get smaller as you go because of the shrinkage created by each stitch line.
It’s a very slow process, but the lines are looking pretty good.
Five lines done; time to stop for the day…