Up, Down, or All-Around?

Thank you everyone for your help and comments.  The sleeve problem ended up being simple to solve.  G gave me a hint when he saw it the next morning.  “The grain changes there” he said. “ Right! Of course!” I thought, actually a little facetiously at the time.  I knew that.  But the other side of the sleeve, where the grain also changed, stitched together perfectly.  By the time I read your comments, and Liana also hit hte nail on the head, I was close to determining the solution.

Then it hit me; the problem was with the directionality of the stitches.   I was attempting to sew the sleeve into the body of the sweater in a continuous circle.  The stitches that took were sewn from underarm up to the shoulder.  The stitches that were not working were being sewn from shoulder seam down to the side seam.  A simple change of direction solved the problem.   

On the second sleeve I simply sewed it in two passes.  I figured that if the first sleeve wanted to be sewn from side seam up, so would the second.  Wrong.  Gaps on both sides.  Reversal of direction from shoulder seem down to side seam on both front and back halves and perfect sleeve setting ensued.

I must not have cut the sleeves in the same direction.  I don’t remember.  I cut this months ago.  The fabric has no nap so it doesn’t matter, although I often cut things the same direction anyway, just in case. 

This is interesting because when I am seaming hand-knitted garments I always set in the sleeves in two steps, sewing from the shoulder seam down each side.  But I have not necessarily been doing that with knitted fabrics.  Perhaps I should.  I am sure that, had I looked at the actual fabric at the top of the sleeve cap, and noticed the directionality of the change from straight-of-grain to bias along the sleeve cap, I could have determined which direction to sew the sleeve to the body. Knits are notoriously unstable on the bias, I am sure some knits are more stable than others. I am surprised this hasn’t happened to me before, but then I haven’t really sewn that many knits.

There is always something new to learn.

The cardigan is not quite done.  I need to do a little topstitching and the buttonholes.  I would like to make the matching top. 

In the meantime another project has leapt to the top of the queue.

Comments

[Liana]

A friend with much experience swears by sewing one sleeve in going around one way and the other the other way. She says it doesn't make any difference which one goes which way, just so they're opposite. I really haven't tried it intentionally, but she generally knows her stuff.... Maybe this is what she meant.