How to shorten blouse sleeves
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The goal of this tutorial is to teach you how to shorten blouse sleeves using elastic casings.
These casings create a ruffled effect:
If you’d rather create a ruffle-free sleeve, sew all around the sleeve after step 5.
Mark desired final length of sleeve on the underside (armpit) area of blouse. Feel free to measure a different shirt’s underside as a reference. In my case, the length was two inches.
Make another mark 0.5 inch (1.27 cm.) plus the width of your elastic below prior mark. It’s best to use elastic with a width between 0.25 and 0.5 inches (0.635 and 1.27 cm.) for sleeve casings.
Hold sleeve out and cut perpendicular to the grain.
Pin sleeve and trim so that edges are even.
Turn blouse wrong-side out. Along raw edges of sleeve, turn 0.25 inches (0.635 cm.) to the wrong side and press.
Fold along hemline so that raw edge is pressed against wrong side of garment. Sew close to raw edge fold, but leave space on each side of underarm seam so that elastic can be slipped through.
Sew all the way around the outer (hem) edge.
Thread elastic and pull all the way around sleeve. I used button thread tied to a needle, but it would be easier to thread it through with a safety pin.
Overlap elastic ends by 0.5 inch (2.27 cm.) and stitch them together with a crisscrossed square. Pull joined ends inside the casing. Edgestitch opening to close it, stretching elastic slightly as you sew.
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How much elastic do you use? Do you measure the elastic around the arm or just thread it through and once it is all the way around cut it?
I am loving this and I hope you respond quickly because I am right in the middle of it!
The length of the elastic is up to you — basically, just make the final length of elastic shorter than the circumference of your sleeve so it will crunch up and give the sleeve a ruffled effect. Although I don’t believe I measured it for this tutorial, my “rule of thumb” is to place the elastic around my bare arm where the finished sleeve will fall, tighten it by 0.5 inches, and then mark that tightened final length on the elastic.
If you’d like a safer approach, you can always use long basting stitches to try elastic different lengths before sealing up the sleeve in step 8.
Let me know how it goes — I’m so glad you’re liking it so far!