Finishing the Sleeves

Finishing the sleeves

Here's the point where your design choices start to make a difference to the method. If you went for narrow sleeves, it's easy. Slip the shift on, figure out where you want the sleeves to finish, trim off any excess and hem the ends to there. Sleeves should be wrist length - short or three-quarter length sleeves are not acceptable. Make sure you double check that both sleeves are the same length!

If you want to put cuffs on - which I, personally, think makes the shift look much more like clothing - then things are a little more complex. This stage is the same for men and women

Slip on the shift and check out the sleeve length. You may find it a little long and, if so, trim the sleeves back. You want them to be about knuckle length, so they balloon out nicely when the cuff is on.

Next, cut out your cuffs. Your cuff piece is a rectangle the desired length plus half an inch by three times the desired width, so the first stage is to figure out how long and how wide you want them to be. You can use a modern shirt as a guide to the length, or eyeball it with a tapemeasure. I find it practical to have my cuffs just big enough that I can ease them over my hand without undoing them. That way, the ties stay fastened and (in theory, anyway) I don't lose them. If I want to roll the sleeves up I stick my hands out through the opening at the end of the seam running the length of the sleeve. Again, the width is a question of eyeballing it. I find a final width of 1-1.5 inches is about right, so I cut my strip four inches wide. Cut out two of these.

Next, track down your iron, remove the cat from the ironing board, and put the iron on the highest setting. Iron the cuff in half lengthwise.

Fold over the short ends and iron these down.

Fold the long sides in towards the first fold and iron into place. Sewing and origami in one easy lesson...

Pleat or gather the end of the sleeve until it's the same length as the cuff. This one's pleated and everything is held in place with pins; there's a photo of a gathered cuff at the end of this section.

Pin the cuff-origami fold onto your pleated sleeve end, with the sleeve sticking out a quarter of an inch or so beyond the cuff edge. Whip-stitch into place.

Turn the sleeve the other way out. Fold the cuff over the raw edges and whipstitch into place. Sew up the open ends of the cuff, inserting a tie if you wish.

The cuff is finished. Do exactly the same thing on the other side.

And here's what a gathered cuff looks like. This is done by sewing tiny running stitches with a strong thread parallel to the sleeve end. The sleeve fabric is gathered up on that thread, until it's the right size. The cuff is folded and sewn on in much the same manner as above, taking care to sew each little gather into place. Once the cuff is on, the gathering thread can be removed.

Fastening the cuff

The period-correct way to fasten the cuff is, as in the example to the left, to sew an eyelet on either end of the cuff and thread a lace through it.

It's also acceptable to sew the lace directly into the cuff when you sew the ends closed. This is shown to the right. This has the great advantage that you can't lose the ties; the disadvantage is that they tend to come quietly undone and dangle in your pottage.

If you've made the cuffs long enough to slip over your hands whilst fastened, then you can whip-stitch the two cuff-ends together and have them permanently closed. This solution is good for kids, who inevitably will lose their cuff ties. If you're making a shift/shirt for a child it's worth, too, making the sleeves over-long and tucking that excess into the cuff so you can lengthen the arms when they grow.

It is not acceptable to fasten the cuffs with buttons