Adventures in sewing

Sewing, especially sewing garments, makes me nervous. So much can go wrong. Will it fit when I’m finished? I’m always jittery throughout the process.

A friend wanted a snuglet/slanket/snuggie for Christmas. When I saw the commercial, I was shocked at the price. Some days later, I hit my StumbleUpon button. Website showed how to make a snuglet. Free pattern seemed simple enough, so I bought three yards of 60-inch wide fleece.

Instructions said to cut 9X6-inch armholes and 12X30-inch sleeve tubes. I obeyed. I thought my first sleeve tube was awfully narrow, so I tried to pull it on. I couldn’t pull it past my elbow. I tried, but ripped the sleeve tube. When I inserted this tube into armhole, I couldn’t figure out how I would fit them together. The size discrepancy was too great.

I’m inches taller than my friend, but her arms aren’t smaller than mine. Besides, aren’t these garments supposed to be loose-fitting?

I bought more fabric and cut a 14-inch sleeve tube, not bothering to measure the length. I could always trim that later. When I tried on that tube, it fit great on my arm and much better in the armhole. Hallelujah!

I haven’t set in a sleeve for probably 30 years. I looked for instructions. Everyone said to sew basting stitches on the sleeve. Pulling the basting stitches would fit the sleeve into the armhole. And I was supposed to match the notches. What notches?

Besides, I had the opposite problem. Armhole was bigger than sleeve. So I pinned them together, placing pins wherever I saw the fabric bulge. Then I sewed them together.

All went well on the first sleeve. Sleeve seam was at bottom of armhole and armhole seam was right side out.

Second sleeve wasn’t so cooperative. First the armhole seam was showing. I ripped it out and resewed it. Then I turned the sleeve inside out, so the sleeve seam was showing. I ripped it out and resewed it. I carefully checked my pinning the third time and thought all was well. What was I looking at? The armhole seam was showing again! I ripped it out and resewed it.

Finally, on Attempt No. 4, sleeve went in correctly. Whew. A girl can only take so much frustration and I was nearing my limit.

After topstitching all edges but the sleeve ends, I tried on snuglet again.

My wingspan is about 6 feet. The sleeves dangled 8 inches below my wrists. My friend’s wingspan is certainly not that long. I folded the sleeves to fit me and pinned them. I wanted to remove the excess 8 inches. Since the serger cuts fabric at the stitching, I decided to serge the sleeve ends. That would get rid of the excess fabric. Or so I thought.

My poor serger couldn’t handle two layers of polarfleece. The stitching looked terrible. I was embarrassed. And I had another problem. Yes, I was cutting the cuffs, but I was stitching them together at the same time.

Hello rotary cutter. I removed both cuffs, then topstitched them with serger. Whew. Now I could stop being a nervous wreck.

By this time, I was sick of the entire project and abandoned it in my sewing chair.

I sure hope she likes this thing.