Practice DOES Make Perfect

This is the adage that my grandmother used to always preach to me whenever I became frustrated with my inability to do something…anything. I have to say that I never thought I would be able to conquer setting in sleeves in one go. But you know what, with the Mint Chip Dress, it happened. I guess all of that practicing finally paid off…though I also have to give kudos to all those people out there who posted tutorials.

My technique is the pin method. I do not put gathering stitches in the sleeve cap. Instead I just pin the bejebbers out of it making sure that my pins are straight and there are no wrinkles on the underside. I then sew in the sleeve and leave the pins in while sewing. I know horrors….leaving in the pins but it is the only method that I have found to work for me. The key really is making sure the pins are straight and that there are no wrinkles and use as many pins as humanly possible!

Seriously it works but practice really is required. I hate to tell you that the first sleeves I tried to set in, I just gave up and put in some cute little pleats with the decision that this is the way it was meant to be. A year later, with much practice, I managed to set in the sleeves on the first go with no ripping out of seams! Yay me! And I rarely say that.