A Harriet Blouse Hack
I had the amazing opportunity to be part of not only the launch team for the Harriet Blouse by BeleToile and Sewitcurly, but also the tester team. In today’s post I will be chatting about a hack that came from a mistake I made during the testing period. I like to call those a “creative liberty.” But, it actually came together better than I had hoped so I’m sharing it with you today.
When I was testing the Harriet blouse I was worried about the length of the sleeve for my arms. I was referring to other testers to determine how much length to take off. Problem was, I went a little too far with taking off length and although my sleeves looked fine I couldn’t comfortably raise my arms up at all. I don’t know about you, but I probably would want the mobility of my arms in this beautiful shirt. So I started brainstorming, what was the best solution? I initially added in snaps on the very edge of my high cuff but it still didn’t help the situation, so I settled on taking off the high cuff and added in a tie on the sleeve hem. Here’s what I did:
1. Firstly, I unpicked the high cuff on both sleeves.
2. I then took the measurements of my arm where the sleeve would sit and added length to account for the ties to tie up. I ended up cutting two 16” x 2” strips and marking two notches for where the sleeve portion would be. NOTE: Just be sure that your hand can fit between those two notches.
3. Next, I ironed each sleeve tie in half, right sides together and then opened up the sides and pressed each raw edge inside by ⅜”.
4. To finish the sleeve ties neatly, stitch the short raw edges with ⅜” seam allowance with right sides facing. Clip or fold the seam allowance and turn the right side out and press the ends only.
5. Gather both sleeve hems. Then pin one side of your sleeve tie to the right side of your sleeve. Only pin the sleeve hem between the two notches you marked before. Baste in place. Repeat on the other sleeve.
6. Once basted, fold over the tie to the right side and pin all the way across the sleeve tie. Stitch across making sure you catch the sleeve tie on the back also. Repeat on the other side.
7. Done!
It sounded complicated but it truly fixed my issue and I love the look. I will most likely use this method moving forward just because I love it that much. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and hope it’s helpful if you ever find yourself in a similar jam.
