The JamCat Fleece Project – Sleeves!!!! Part 1, The Overlay and Lining

Yay!!!! I’m finally on to the sleeves for this project!

Hi Everyone! Welcome back to this JamCat Fleece project, Part what? Part 7, or is it 8? I’ve lost count.

Anyhoosy…it is sleeve time, aren’t you excited? I have been waiting ever so patiently to get to this point to have my gusset alteration really come to life. I’m so excited to see if this thing is really going to work out the way I have intended it to…oh! the nerves!

But first…have to do the preliminary stuff so here we go…

I cut out 2 of these sleeve overlays from the contrast water repellant fabric.

The instructions tell you to turn the outer edges over 1/4” and edge stitch these overlays in place…

Here’s a tip I learned from Mom years and years ago. Instead of trying to measure and fold over using a seam gauge I run a length of stitching through the machine, using a long basting stitch, the width I want to fold over! It is so easy! Just sew the width you want and then move over to the iron for pressing! Here’s the 1/4” basting stitch…and then pressing this with the iron to the wrong side… Then the overlay gets …well…over layed! Ha ha ha!

And I use my Edgestitch foot to sew this onto the sleeve… You’ll see what this looks like in this next photo, but first I want to tell you about that lining of the sleeve. Remember, Jim asked that the sleeves be lined and at this point I’m getting super antsy to see how these sleeves will come together! The lining for the sleeves is the tricot fabric I’ve previously used for the pockets and the inside lower fronts. There is absolutely no need to cut the tricot using a pattern. I just cut a piece large enough. I am going to baste these two layers together and treat them as ONE UNIT so there isn’t a need be exact on the cutting here…at this point. What I’m most concerned about is the fabric laying FLAT and coverage extends all around the sleeve.

I could hand baste the two layers together but I decide to try a quilting technique for this. I mean why not right? Aren’t you wanting to see how this comes out too? So I decide to use some quilting spray basting to adhere these two layers together!

Watch out because this stuff sticks!!! This is a spray basting that washes out and cleans up with water. I am only using quick little pumps to the area and then smoothing the fabric… This worked GREAT! I forget just how fast this spray basting goes together!

Then I run a basting stitch close to the edge around the sleeve… And trim using the rotary cutter… (Thanks Mom! This new rotary cutter you gave me for Christmas works wonderfully!)…