Hey, Ya'll! It's Brittanie! I have a confession- I avoid hemming at all costs. It's my LEAST favorite part of sewing. In my effort to avoid hems, i've become a cuff/band fanatic.
As soon as I saw the new Dream Tee, I knew it would be a perfect time to do a quick blog post on how I do my cuffs!
Hemming can be difficult, especially with slick fabrics. Bands can be done completely on a serger, or a sewing machine. Since the bands will be folded in half, the fold will finish the fabric edge. If you leave an edge raw (unfinished) it won't fray, but it may roll. Most types of knits will work for cuffs, but some (like rayon spandex) will "grow" and become looser during wear. I prefer using double brushed poly (DBP) for my bands most of the time, but cotton lycra (CL) is a close second.
To make the Dream Tee with short sleeve cuffs, you'll need to shorten the sleeves on the pattern piece. If you want to cuffs to be 2 inches wide, simply shorten the sleeves 2 inches.
Now, we'll follow the steps from the tutorial for the shirt construction (shoulder seams, neckband, and side seams). Now, we need to bust out our handy dandy measuring tapes/rulers!
I like my cuffs about 2 inches wide, which means we need to cut them 4 inches wide since they'll be folded in half. You'll need to measure the opening of the sleeves. This measurement will be multiplied by .85.
My sleeve was 17 inches. 17x.85=14.45. So I cut my cuffs 14.45X4. Once your cuffs are cut, you'll fold them in half lengthwise, and sew or serge the open end.
After the cuffs and sewn or serged, fold them in half width wise. We'll need to find the quarter points of both the cuffs and the sleeve opening. Pin them together, matching quarter points. Sew or serge, gently stretching the cuffs. DO NOT STRETCH THE SLEEVE OPENING.
That's it! Your cuffs are done!! Enjoy never hemming sleeves again 😂
