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Shortening shoulder length

gwoman | Posted in Fitting on

Hello,

 

If any of you have successfully reduced the length of the shoulders of a jacket, would you please share the steps you used.  I thought I could simply cut out fabric around the armhole and then reattach the sleeves.  A video on YouTube suggested otherwise.  It’s a favored garment.

 

Thank you very much in advance.

gwoman 

Replies

  1. stillsuesew | | #1

    When you reduce the shoulder length you are making the arm hole larger.  I have done this alteration many times on ready to wear.   Take the sleeve out and use a piece of paper to trace the shape of the original armhole.  Then when you cut off what you need to cut off you can see how much different it is.  Sometimes you can take in a little under the arm and sometimes you can cut the sleeve itself a little deeper to fit.  Usually there was ease in the sleeve when it was originally sewn in and you may be able to put the sleeve back in  without doing anything to it, but with less ease.

  2. stillsuesew | | #2

    I forgot to mention that you can also reduce the size of the armhole by making the shoulder slope greater - taking in the shoulder seam.  But you should only do this if the wearer has sloping shoulders or the garment will not hang properly.  If there are shoulder pads, removing the shoulder pads may allow for taking in the shoulder seam - but proceed carefully.

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