Burdastyle Ute Sew-Along: Step 9

By Tiffany - Thursday, May 02, 2013

We are at the final step of the Burdastyle Ute Sew-Along!

In this step we do up the sleeves and finish the shirt. So, we have already made our cuffs earlier. Now go ahead and attach them to the sleeves with the wrong side of the sleeve facing the right side of the cuff.

One thing I did a bit differently from the instructions is machine baste the shoulder pleats in place. I find fitting sleeves hard enough without playing with extra pins and pleats.

Next we sew the sleeve closed. One part I do not like about the sleeve is the seam. The cuff does not hide it because of the way it is attached. I tried doing a french seam, but the fabric was too thick to make it work. Instead, I topstitched the seam into place. At the very least, it no longer sticks out so much.

Next, I machine basted the sleeves in place and tried out the shirt.

I have sleeves!

Not too bad. If I needed any more adjustments, it would have been easy to fix the sleeves before sewing them into place. As I was happy with the fit, I sewed and finished the sleeve seams and did the hem of the shirt.

Last part! Buttons and buttonholes are the only thing left. My sewing machine (a 20-year-old Singer 663 C) has a manual buttonhole maker, but it is not perfect. I tested making buttonholes serval times on a scrap piece of fabric until they looked ok.

I had to manually move my fabric at each step to get the needle in the right place. Also, I found out after re-reading my manual that reverse button is also a balance dial - I turn it to the right or left to balance out how thick the stitches along the buttonhole appear.