I can't sew sleeves (Please help!)

[Clarinet]

I'm terrible at sewing sleeves. Plain, at the shoulder sleeves. I freely admit that I only use patterns that are either sleeveless, gathered slightly at the top of the sleeve for a little puff or made with an elastic neckline because the sleeves are sewn on straight and then pulled up by the elastic. However, I'm working on the girls' mermaid costumes (making the body part out of off-white flannel to keep them warm) and I had to make four sleeves. I pinned them in about 47 places, stretched the shorter fabric, paused while sewing to readjust lots of times and STILL ended up with at least one unintended tuck per sleeve. My last one, I ended up with three and one was so bad I had to take out a portion and re-do it. What the heck is the trick to making sleeves with flannel/cotton/non-stretchy fabric?

I would love, love, love to make old-fashioned wool jackets for the girls to wear when we're not playing in the snow but there's no way I'm paying for really nice fabric given the level my sleeves are on. Is wool more stretchy than flannel? I did sew a shirt once with a knit fabric and it ended up pretty nice but it stretched so much for me that it was easy not to screw it up.

Any tips, tricks, advice about sewing sleeves?

[eepster]

One trick is to sew the sleeve to the body before sewin the side seam and the seam up the arm. After the body and sleeves are sewn together sew up the side seam and arm seam all at once. This trick only works if the seams are meant to line up, but since they are on most garments this covers many.

Another trick is that you do basting stitches along where you will be seaming on the sleeve and then clip the curve up to the stitching. Do the same thing with the arm hole on the body. Then place the sleeve to the body. The clipping makes the fabric more flexible so it is easier to get the arm hole and sleeve to match.

Finally even if the sleeve isn't puffy sometimes gathering it very slightly at the top makes it set in better.

HTH

[Clarinet]

That helps a lot. Especially the trick about clipping the curves. I noticed I could stretch the short piece to fit but clipping makes more sense. I'm going to practice.

[Angelorum]

I gather very slightly for non poofy sleeves, pin it into the armhole and if I'm using a natural fabric that will shrink, I steam the heck out of it to shrink it into the right shape. That should work well for making wool jackets. Also, if you sew with the sleeve facing up, you can watch out for unintentional tucks better.

[orangefoot]

I have just overcome my fear of sleeves and sewn 3 long sleeved knit tops for my dd!

I sewed the fist one by setting the sleeve into the armscyre(?) after having sewn up the sde seams but ended up with toom much sleve and not enough hole!

The second and third I just sewed the shoulder seams then opened the shirt out flat and lined up the straight edge of the sleeve with the straight edge of the side hem. Then I started pinning, pinning and pinning round little by little. As if by magic the curved top of the sleeve went in beautifully then I sewed from the cuff up to the underarm then down the side seam.

I couldn't believe that they looked so good and now I am going to do more!