Amanda Takes Off...

So, I'm not very good at sewing. I made a few things more than five years ago but I want to get into this. This weekend I planned to make some simple, hard-to-screw-up Thai fisherman pants.

Instead, in typical Amanda-fashion, I cut out a dress pattern.

It was going OK, until I got to the sleeve. I had been battling the sleeve cap (the round part that covers your upper arm and is sewn into the armhole) for a couple of days. The pattern's sleeve cap appears to be too tall and the pattern told me to ease (squeeze) a heck of a lot of fabric into a small space. I was getting puckers, tucks, pleats.

After the sixth time of trying to follow the directions, I wanted to cry. I was tired of ripping my work out, the fabric was looking worn and it was just a mess. I considered adding an inverted box pleat to get rid of the excess fabric, but that looked weird. I considered leaving it sleeveless.

I researched options online and in my sewing books. After a lot of conflicting advice I finally eased the cap in last night. It looked beautiful, see? (That's not ironed or pressed.)

Beautiful Sleeve

And then I stretched my arms to test the fit.

Whaaaat?