We answer a bunch of questions in this episode: What even is a yoke, anyways? Are my shoulders weird? How do I DIY those cute western embellishments on my me-mades? We share ideas, inspo, pattern adjustments, and more! Plus, we answer a listener question about making elastic waistbands easier to sew and wear.
The transcript for this episode is on this page at the end of the show notes.
Previous Episodes Mentioned:
From the Listener Questions Section:
- “How to Sew and Topstitch an Elastic Waistband” on the Helen’s Closet Patterns blog
Inspo:
Resources:
- “Fundamentals of Pattern Making: Basic Yokes” at The Cutting Class
- “The Style Dictionary: Yokes” at Gertie’s Blog for Better Sewing
- “How to do the Burrito Method on a Lined Yoke” at Seamwork
- “How to Draft a Top with a Yoke” at the In the Folds blog
- “Fairfield Sew-Along Button-up: Day 3 – Create a Custom Fit” by Matthew Meredith at the Thread Theory blog
- “Fairfield Button-up Sew-Along: Day 4 – Create a Custom Fit (Part 2)” by Matthew Meredith at the Thread Theory blog
- “How to Do a Narrow or Broad Shoulder Adjustment” at the Helen’s Closet Patterns blog
- “How to Do a Forward Shoulder Adjustment (On Yourself!)” at the In the Folds blog
Patterns:
- Camargue Cowboy Shirt by Liberty – size band 1, size band 2
Transcript:
Helen: We are recording today on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish and Kwakwaka’wakw peoples, including Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Musqueam, and K’ómoks first nations.
Caroline: Hello, and welcome to Love to Sew. I’m Caroline, the owner of Blackbird Fabrics and BF Patterns.
Helen: And I’m Helen, the designer behind Helen’s Closet Patterns and Cedar Quilt Co.
Caroline: We’re two sewing buds who love to sew, and it’s the only thing worth talking about.
Helen: Today we’re discussing yokes and shoulders. What even is a yoke anyways? Are my shoulders weird? How do I DIY those cute western embellishments on my me-mades? We answer all this and more.
Caroline: If you love to sew, this is your show.
Helen: Hi, Caroline!
Caroline: Hi, Helen.
Helen: How are you?
Caroline: Good. How are you?
Helen: Good! It’s weird that we’re recording this so far in advance, and, like, by the time this episode comes out your wedding will be over, but I can’t ask you about it.
Caroline: I know! I’ll be three days a married woman. Hopefully, everything goes off without a hitch, and yeah…
Helen: Yeah.
Caroline: Send good vibes, and yeah…
Helen: Voice not reaching new registers.
Caroline: Definitely not stressed at all. No, I’m feeling really good actually.
Helen: Good. Good, good, good. Well, we have a fun episode today. I mean, I think it’s fun, but I love to sew. So…
Caroline: Maybe the most niche episode we’ve ever done.
Helen: Maybe, maybe. But there’s a lot to discuss and shoulders are, kind of, a big deal when you’re making garments.
Caroline: It’s true.
Helen: They hold up your clothes.
Caroline: It’s absolutely true. Yeah. I’m excited to talk about, we have a lot of different angles to look at in this episode when it comes to yokes and shoulders.
Helen: Front. Side. Back.
Caroline: Literally and figuratively.
Helen: Yes.
Caroline: But I think we should kick off this episode with a question from Alexandra: “I’ve been sewing for about a year, and I’m just starting to venture into trousers. I’m having trouble with elastic waistbands. I know they’re supposed to be easy, but all my waistbands roll and twist. My elastic gets caught as I insert it into the channel. Can you provide any tips? What am I doing wrong?”
Helen: Hi, Alexandra. Thank you for asking this question. Elastic waistbands are a very important part of my wardrobe, and I know I’m not alone. You definitely want those to be functional, and yeah, they should be pretty easy to sew. So here are some tips for the best results.
Caroline: So first up you want to be precise about your seam allowance. There should be a little ease built into the casing pattern piece so that the elastic isn’t too difficult to pull through. And if you’re drafting your own casing, add about three-eighths of an inch to your width if you’re topstitching both sides and a quarter inch if you’re topstitching only one side. After topstitching you should have about an eighth of an inch of ease.
Helen: Yeah, that’s really important because otherwise it’s so hard to push the elastic through. It’s just, like, ugh, so annoying. Secondly, you want to consider using a bodkin instead of a safety pin. Safety pins work in a pinch, but a bodkin can make pulling that elastic through a casing much easier. It’s a nice tool to add to your arsenal.
Caroline: Mhm. And after you’ve finished inserting your elastic, do a little topstitching to keep it from twisting. You can stitch in the ditch vertically over the side seams, or you could do parallel lines of top stitching over the whole waistband. There’s a tutorial for how to do this for the Arden Pants on the Helen’s Closet blog.
Helen: And it can really help to buy no roll elastic, which is designed to stay firm. This is the only elastic that I like to use in elastic waistbands. And you want to make sure regardless of what kind of elastic you’re buying, that it doesn’t get narrower when you pull it. You want the kind that stays at the same width when you pull it.
That’s going to make a big difference, as well. I love elastic waistbands, but I’m not sure that pushing that elastic through really gets that much easier over time. It just, kind of, is one of those things you have to, like, do, and it’s a bit monotonous and tedious. And if you have any, like, arthritis in your hands, it can be really challenging.
Caroline: Mhm. Yeah, just take your time with it. Go slow. Check that your elastic isn’t twisting as you’re pulling it through. Definitely check that it’s not twisted before you secure it closed and along the way as your top stitching. And that added stitching either on the side seams or along the waistband is really going to make a difference. And I think it’ll solve your problem if you’re willing to do that.
Helen: Yes, definitely. All right, let’s move up the body to the yokes and shoulder area.
Caroline: Okay, but first, Helen, can I tell you a knock, knock yoke?
Helen: A knock, knock yoke? Okay.
Caroline: Knock, knock.
Helen: Who’s there?
Caroline: Shoulda.
Helen: Shoulda who?
Caroline: Sholda said no when I asked if I could tell you a yoke.
Helen: I’m so glad I said yes. Worth it.
Caroline: What a way to start the episode, but you know, we love a good laugh, listeners. Okay. Today we’re going to talk about a super important and underrated part of garments. The parts that go up on your shoulders.
Helen: We’re going to talk all about yokes, how to sew them, how to embellish them, and how to add them or take them away. And then we’re going to talk a little bit about shoulder fitting and chat about all the ways you can embellish the shoulders of your garments.
Caroline: Okay, so let’s start by defining yoke. I don’t think we need to define shoulders, but a yoke is a shaped pattern piece on a garment often seen around the neck and shoulders or at the hips. Today we’re going to talk about shirt yokes, which usually come from the shoulder seam to the upper back or upper bust. They can go lower though.
Yokes are often used for shaping. They can absorb a dart. That means that the shaping that a dart would usually provide can be turned into a curved seam along the bottom of the yoke instead. On a fitted shirt without a yoke, there’s sometimes that comes down from the shoulder seam to accommodate the curve of the upper back and shoulders. But with a yoke, you don’t need that dart.
Helen: Yeah, it actually serves a really cool function as well as being a neat design detail. On a classic button up, the lower part of the shirt back often has a pleat or gathers coming down from the centre or along the sides of the yoke to allow for ease of movement so you
can reach your arms forward.
Caroline: Yokes can also be purely decorative. They’re a great opportunity for colour blocking or cutting fabric on the bias or adding piping or ruffles. They can be a great frame for embroidery or pin tucks, and they provide a seam where you can add pleats or gathers to the lower part of the top.
Helen: Yokes on tops are usually at the shoulders coming down to the upper back or upper bust, as we mentioned, but sometimes they do go lower, but they always start at the shoulders. They don’t all look the same though. They come in all different kinds of shapes and sizes, and I feel like especially in you know, the 80s, maybe 70s, as well, those are some crazy yokes.
Caroline: Yeah.
Helen: Yeah, you can really go quite wild with the shaping and the size. We don’t see them as often in our ready to wear clothes today, but they’re out there.
Caroline: Yeah, you can have a yoke that forms a straight line across the front of a top. This is sometimes called a square yoke. I’ve also seen a vintage pattern that connects the yoke to a grown-on sleeve. The seam looks like a square. It goes across the bust and then angles down below the shoulders. It’s super cool. We’re gonna link a pic of this in the show notes for you.
Helen: You can also have pointed yokes. Western shirts have some of the best pointed yokes around. Sometimes the yokes come down in points from each shoulder, pointing towards your chest, and sometimes they come down in a centre V or bib shape, and they usually have points in the back, as well.
@Jukebox.Mama on Instagram is great for inspiration. She does amazing custom chain stitch embroidery and embellishments onto Western shirts. We’re talking piping, fringe, curved welt pockets, decorative reinforcements at the edges, everything good. So we’re going to link that up in the show notes, as well.
Caroline: I’ve also seen yokes that point up from under the arms to the centre front. This is, kind of, a cool detail, too.
Helen: Oh, yeah. It’s true. You don’t have to have the points always going down.
Caroline: You can have a curved yoke. It’s, kind of, like a flat donut that goes over your head and then the rest of the garment hangs from it.
Helen: Yeah, sometimes they extend all the way, like you were saying, over the shoulders, and then the sleeves attach to that yoke. There’s just so many cool things that you can do. Sometimes these curved yokes are called bibs, especially when they go down the front, the bust point, or lower. Bibs can cover the whole shoulder, like a regular yoke, or start part way in the shoulder seam. And a curved yoke can also curve the opposite way, with the high point at the centre.
Caroline: Ooh, so many possibilities. And apart from how they’re shaped, there are a few more differences yokes can have. So you can have a single yoke, also known as a one-piece yoke, or a double yoke, also known as a two-piece or split yoke. A single yoke is one pattern piece, while a double yoke is split down the middle. You usually see double yokes on the back of tailored men’s shirts. It provides another seam that can be altered to fit the shirt very closely. If you have a curve at your upper back, you can split your yoke and curve the seam so that your shirt fits smoothly there.
Helen: You can have a lined or an unlined yoke. I would say that most yokes are lined. It gives a clean look to the inside, and the extra layer of fabric gives the yoke more body so that it lays nice and flat. Yokes are usually lined with self fabric, but you can use contrasting fabric if you want to. It’s a good idea to have a fabric that will shrink the same way as the garment fabric though, so keep that in mind. Since the lining is attached on all sides, it could pucker or bag out if you use a fabric that shrinks differently. So use a lining fabric of the same fibre or at least match natural fibres with natural fibres and synthetics with synthetics. You get it.
Caroline: And unlined yokes are faster and easier to sew than lined yokes. They don’t support the lower part of the fabric quite as much as a lined yoke though, but unless you have a really heavy fabric, that probably won’t be an issue. They also don’t look as nice on the inside as lined yokes. With lined yokes you can, kind of, enclose the seam allowance, and it gives a really nice clean finish.
Helen: Yeah, I don’t know if I’ve ever encountered a pattern, like a shirt pattern, for example, with a back yoke that wasn’t lined because then you get to do, like, the fun, like, burrito twirl or whatever…
Caroline: Mhm.
Helne: …and it just is like really satisfying that all those seams are tucked away. It’s so handy.
Caroline: Mhm. I wonder if an unlined back yoke would be used, kind of, like, if you’re doing just a colour blocking situation…
Helen: Oh, yeah.
Caroline: …and you just want that design detail but it’s not so much about the construction.
Helen: Yeah, that’s true. Like, and I could see that on a knit, like maybe on a pullover or something…
Caroline: Yeah.
Helen: …where you want to have that colour blocking on the top. You definitely wouldn’t want to have two layers up there.
Caroline: Mhm.
Helen: Some yokes also call for interfacing. Usually, it’s so the yoke will lie nice and flat, again, have that structure. And you can use fusible or sew-in interfacing regardless of what the pattern calls for.
We usually use fusible because it takes fewer steps than sew-in, and you don’t have to worry about handling it super carefully. The fabric can bunch up over sew-in interfacing if it’s not perfectly flat during the basting part. So if you want to hear more about the pros and cons of different interfacing methods and lots of tips for getting a good result, you can check out Episode 78, all about interfacing.
Caroline: Constructing a single layer yoke is pretty easy. You just sew the seam. Okay. It might be a bit trickier than that, especially if you’re sewing a super curvy seam or wrangling gathers. So we have some tips for sewing a curved seam. Place your pins parallel to the seam allowance rather than perpendicular. Take tiny bites out of the fabric with your pins and try to pin on the seam line rather than at the edge of the fabric.
And when you’re sewing a convex curve to a concave curve the length of the fabric at the edges is going to be wildly different but the length along the seam lines is going to be the same so that’s why you’re matching up the seam line and not the edge of the fabric. And you can also mark the seam lines if that helps. I’ve also seen people, like, baste, do a basting stitch or a stay stitch along the seam line just so that you can match up that stitch line.
Helen: Totally. And you want to go slowly here. On lots of machines, you can turn down the stitching speed, so that’s a good idea. If you need to start and stop a lot, that’s totally okay. You want to leave your needle in the down position so that things don’t shift out of place. And if you mess up, that’s what a seam ripper is for. Don’t feel bad. We all use them.
Caroline: If you have gathers on the bottom part of the shirt, you can put that side down against the feed dog so that they go in nicely, or you can use a walking foot so that you have feed dogs on the top, too.
Helen: Constructing a double layer yoke is a little bit more complicated. As I mentioned, many pattern companies like to use the burrito method to put in a yoke. It’s going to be hard to visualise this process by listening to us talk about it, so we’re not going to go into detail. But here’s the basic process.
You’re going to sandwich the back of the shirt between the yoke and yoke lining pieces, and then, you’re sewing the lower seam of the yoke. Then, you’re going to baste on the fronts of the shirt. And then, you get to do the fun burrito part, you know, roll up the fronts and backs so you can pull the yoke lining around encasing all of that, and sew it to the yoke and fronts at the shoulders.
And then, when you turn it inside out by pulling the rolled up fronts and backs out of the armhole or neck hole, you have a neatly finished yoke on both the outside and the inside. All the seams are enclosed. So we’ll link a video tutorial for the burrito method in our show notes, so you can really see how it’s done.
Caroline: Yeah, it’s pretty hard to visualise just from words.
Helen: It really is. But it’s so fun. Like, I remember my first burrito.
Caroline: You don’t think it’s going to work. Yeah, you’re pretty, what kind of burrito? No, it feels like magic. Like, it doesn’t feel like it’s going to work ,and then, it just does. And you’re like, wow, sewing is magic.
Helen: Yeah.
Caroline: Another method uses topstitching or hand stitching to attach the lower seam of the yoke lining. So in this case, first you’re going to sew the yoke to the shirt back at the lower seam.
And then second, you’re going to sandwich the shirt front between the yoke and yoke lining and sew the shoulder seams. And then, you press up the seam allowance along the bottom edge of the yoke lining. You can sew the lining down by stitching in the ditch along the bottom seam from the outside of the shirt or by hand stitching it to the seam allowance near the seam.
And if you’re doing this method with a curved yoke, you may want to use a jig to press up the seam allowance. A jig is a piece of card that’s cut to match the curve of the pattern piece, and you place it along the seam line and fold the seam allowance up over it so that you can press it really neatly.
Old cereal boxes are perfect for making jigs. And I will also say sewing a line of stitching along that line that you’re going to need to fold under, and you’re using your machine as a guide to get that seam allowance line perfect, that works really well, too, if you don’t want to make a jig.
Helen: Yeah, totally.
Caroline: And if you don’t want to do a jig, too bad because you should.
Helen: But we have a little break coming up so you can dance to our music.
Love to Sew is made possible by listeners like you. We are so grateful for the support of our amazing patrons and subscribers. If you love Love to Sew and you want to help support the pod, we have a new option for you.
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And we’re back. Let’s move on to hacking and pattern drafting with yokes. Hashtag you can hack it.
Helen: One thing we want to mention, if you’re making certain fit adjustments to a pattern that has a yoke, you will need to adjust the yoke as well if that fit adjustment’s in that general area. I think a lot of people get confused about how to do this, but it’s really not too bad. You want to make sure to draw in the seam allowance lines on your yoke and your front or back. Then, you do your adjustment to the front or back and make sure to continue that adjustment on to the yoke if you are, for example, adjusting the armscye or doing a broad back adjustment.
If the yoke is purely decorative, let’s say the top of your back pattern piece is perfectly straight, the bottom of your yoke piece is perfectly straight, there’s no shaping or anything happening in there, so that would indicate that the yoke is decorative. You can just tape the bodice and yoke together along the seam lines, then do your adjustment, and then separate them when you’re done.
Caroline: You can adjust the fit of a garment by changing the shape of the yoke. There’s a couple of articles on the Thread Theory blog about fitting the Fairfield Button Up where they show you how. It’s pretty cool. They make a muslin, put it on the person they’re fitting, and then cut away the yoke at the seams, and bridge the gaps with masking tape you can see where the new curve needs to be and copy that on to new paper or fabric.
Helen: I love this method because there’s something so satisfying about cutting into your muslin and just seeing what happens. Your body will naturally spread it…
Caroline: Mhm.
Helen: …apart and then you can really visualise it.
Caroline: Yeah.
Helen: You can add a yoke to a top that doesn’t have one, as well. You draw a line on your shirt pattern where you want the yoke to be and you can cut it apart. You can end the process here and then just add back in your seam allowance. Shirts like this look great with colour blocking or a lace or mesh yoke or ruffled sandwich in the seam. Or you can manipulate the lower part of the shirt if you want to. Tops with gathers or pleats just under the yoke are so cute.
Caroline: You can adjust the yoke to, like, slashing and spreading it to add pin tucks. And if you’re altering a bodice block, you can draft a yoke to absorb a dart in the shoulder or neckline. We mentioned this earlier, but to do this, draw a line on your block where you want the yoke to be and cut the pattern apart along the line.
Draw a line down the centre of the dart to the bottom seam line of the yoke. And then, redraw the dart so that the dart point is on that bottom seam line. And then, cut this new dart out and swing the pattern closed. And this is going to give you a yoke piece that angles up at the edge by the armscye. Smooth out the seams, add seam allowance, and your yoke piece is ready to go.
Helen: So cool! Along the same lines, you can also eliminate a yoke in a pattern. If the yoke is decorative, all you need to do is just tape the pattern together along those seam lines. You can tell a yoke is decorative, again, because the seam lines will match and be straight. If the yoke has shaping, you’re going to want to add a dart to keep the fit of the shirt.
You’ll basically do the opposite of the process for drafting a yoke that we just talked about. Tape the pattern pieces together and treat the shaped seam of the yoke as a dart. Then, you can move the dart around to where you want it to be. For example, moving it down to, like, the side seam so it’s just a standard bust dart.
Shirts with darts at the back usually have them coming down from the shoulder seam, angling towards the centre back of the shirt.
Caroline: Now let’s talk about something way more fun. Yokes are like a plate that you can pile up with good food. And by good food, we mean embellishments.
Helen: It’s funny because some of them literally look like dinner plates, like, on your shoulders.
Caroline: Yeah.
Helen: Or like bibs for eating food, too.
Caroline: Absolutely.
Helen: You can, of course, use contrast fabric on your yokes. It’s such an impactful place for colour blocking. Just make sure to use a similar weight and fibre to the rest of your garment.
Caroline: You can cut your yoke on the bias. This looks especially good in gingham or plaid. Those diagonal lines are really giving. I love it.
Helen: Oh, every time I make a plaid shirt, I have to cut the yoke on the bias. I just have to.
Caroline: Yeah.
Helen: It’s not even a question. You can fill in your yoke with embroidery, beading, or appliqué. The yoke lining will hide all the threads on the back, so it’s a really great place for this kind of work.
Caroline: Helen you did some floral embroidery on one of your March Tops didn’t you?
Helen: Yes, I didn’t cut the yoke or panel, front panel piece out until later on because I knew I was going to be handling it a lot, and I didn’t want the seam allowances to, like, fray away or get misshapen. So instead what I did is I cut a bigger piece of fabric, I interfaced it, and I used contrast thread to baste along where the stitch lines were going to be so I could see where everything would be placed.
And then I could place my embroidery accordingly. Normally, I would use chalk for that, but I knew I’d be working on this project for a while and the chalk would eventually rub off and fade away. So I went with the thread and then I embroidered all my flowers freehand. And when I was done, I cut out the piece, removed those basting stitches, and then I sewed up my top and it’s so beautiful. It’s one of my most proudest makes ever.
Caroline: Oh, I love that top so much. We’ll have to link it in the show notes.
Helen: Yeah.
Caroline: Traditionally, western shirts are embroidered with chain stitching. You can’t do this by machine unless you have a specific chain stitching machine. However, you can replicate the look by hand. The Camargue Cowboy Shirt by Liberty Fabrics would be a good pattern choice for a western shirt. It has several yoke options.
Helen: Ooh, cute. I really want to do a, like, Western yoke hack for the Cameron button up…
Caroline: Ooh, yes.
Helen: …because Sam looks so cute in Western shirts, and I would love to do a little embroidery project for him, too.
Caroline: That would be so cute.
Helen: You may want to interface your fabric if you’re embroidering or beading, whether or not your pattern calls for it. It’s going to keep your fabric from puckering up when you’re working on it, and it will keep the fabric flat when you wear it, so you can really see your embroidery.
Caroline: And you can use a hoop to keep your fabric taut while you’re working. Try not to stretch your fabric too much when you’re putting it in the hoop. It doesn’t need to be tight as a drum. And if your fabric has enough body, you may not even need a hoop.
Helen: Another option for embellishment would be to put piping along the lower seams of your yoke. This is popular in Western shirts, but it can also look great in other styles, as well. One of the samples of the Rosa Shirt by Tilly and the Buttons is made in a pink and white flamingo print fabric, and it has black piping along the yoke seams, the princess seams, and around the collar. It’s so cute and shapely.
Caroline: You can add ruffles in your yoke seams. The Sagebrush Top by Friday Pattern Co. has a nice narrow ruffle along a front yoke seam. Jessica Quirk on Instagram has a couple of really cool versions of McCall’s 7977, which has a deep V yoke with a big fluffy ruffle.
Helen: Oh, I love a good ruffle sandwich, you know?
Caroline: Yeah. Like, also a good ruffle chip sandwich is good, but…
Helen: That, too. Okay, yokes are also a great place for pintucks. I’ve seen some really nice tops with vertical pintucks on a bib style yoke. Once again, Jessica Quirk with some amazing ones. Truly our yoke-spiration for this episode.
Caroline: Yokes also make nice lines for placing trim, lace, fringe, ribbon, rick rack, you name it. Come on. What is a Western shirt without a little bit of fringe? Okay, It’s time to move on to the other part of this episode, shoulders. Or should I say, shouldas.
Helen: Shouldas.
Caroline: Shouldas.
Helen: Okay, we’ve all got them. We’ve all sewn for them. And it’s, kind of, amazing when you think about it. Your shoulders hold up your clothes. They’re, like, the clothes hanger of the skeleton. Also, they have arms attached that move in every which direction. Like, it’s incredible that we’re able to clothe them at all.
Caroline: Oh, my gosh. It’s so true though. I’ve suspected for a long time that one of the reasons there are so many sleeveless ready to wear garments is that, one, it’s hard to draft a sleeve that’s going to fit a lot of different people. And two, it’s hard to draft a good sleeve period.
Helen: Yeah, that part where the bodice connects to the sleeve is a really tricky drafting area. There’s all these different curves happening, and everyone’s shape is a little bit different. So yeah, when you go to the store and you try on clothes, and they just don’t fit right, it’s hard to draft something that’s going to fit everybody.
Caroline: Yeah.
Helen: But coming back to shoulders, let’s talk a little bit about shoulder shapes because everybody’s shoulders are a little bit different. And even your two shoulders are probably a little bit different from each other. So let’s talk about some of the different shoulder shapes out there and what you might notice in your garments if you fall into these categories.
Caroline: First up, sloped shoulders. So when you look in the mirror, your shoulders slope down from your neck like your head is on a hill. Straps don’t stay put. You can get a good neck fit, but the top of the sleeve cap looks like it’s hovering above your shoulders. You get drag lines from garments sloping down. Also, one of your shoulders may be more sloped than the other. If this sounds like you, you want to be looking for the sloped shoulder adjustment.
Helen: Next up is square shoulders. It’s, kind of, the opposite. When you look in the mirror, your shoulders are straight. You often see drag lines radiating out towards the tops of your shoulders from your chest. Collars feel like they are collapsing at your neck, and you can wear strappy garments without any issues because the straps always stay up.
If this is you, you want to look for a square shoulder adjustment to get rid of any of those radiating drag lines. But other than that, I mean congrats on being able to wear strappy things. That’s great. Good for you.
Caroline: Love that for you. Okay, next up is narrow shoulders. When you look in the mirror, the width of your shoulders seems narrow compared to your chest. Your torso is loosely shaped like a triangle. And when you sew sleeved garments, the armholes often fall off the edge of your shoulder. Things might look like they have dropped shoulders on you. Clothes might feel oversized in the neck and shoulders. So if this is you, you want to look for a narrow shoulder adjustment.
Helen: Yeah, this is a common one, and it can be tricky when you’re choosing a size in a pattern because we often are just looking at, like chest, waist, hip. And if you choose a size based on those three measurements, but you often find that the end result still feels big on you, especially, like, above the chest in your shoulder area, that’s when you might be a candidate for a narrow shoulder adjustment.
And again, the opposite of that would be a broad shoulder adjustment. So when you look in the mirror, the width of your shoulder seems wider than your chest. Your torso is loosely shaped like an inverted triangle. And when you sew garments, the sleeve attachment seam sometimes sits inward from the end of your shoulder, creating tightness in the shoulder or drag lines over the top of the sleeve.
If you fit garments to your shoulders, they feel oversized on the rest of your body. So you can look for a broad shoulder adjustment to get that width in the shoulders that you need without impacting the fit everywhere else.
Caroline: And for a forward sloping shoulder, in this case, when you look in the mirror from the side, your shoulders tip forward, and you may see a rounded upper back. This one can develop as we age, but it can also be posture related. You get gaping at the back neck on your garment. It can feel like loose clothes are slipping backwards on your shoulders. So if this sounds like you, you want to be looking for a forward shoulder adjustment.
Helen: And we’re going to have links to tutorials for all these adjustments in our show notes. And I want to reiterate that there’s nothing wrong with you in any of these cases. Literally, all of our shoulders are so different and different shapes. So if you’ve been sewing for a while and you haven’t really explored shoulder fit, that might be an interesting thing for you to start looking at because it really can make a big difference in the fit of especially more fitted garments.
Caroline: And we’re not going to talk about setting in sleeves in this episode because we already have that covered in our sleeves episode. So go listen to that one if you want to hear all about it. It’s Episode 225.
Helen: Sometimes shoulders also need a little bit of help. Padding: it’s not just for 80s power suits. If you have a garment with a strong shoulder, a shoulder pad can help it stand up properly. Blazers are really in style right now, and you can bet they have pads in the shoulders. Almost all tailored jackets and coats do. They’re just not quite as big as they were 40 years ago.
Caroline: You can buy ready made shoulder pads, or you can make your own. They’re shaped like a D, flat on one side and curved on the other, and the curved side goes towards your neck, and the flat side lines up with the armscye.
Shoulder pads are wedge shaped with the thickest part at the sleeve cap, tapering to a thin end toward your neck. And they’re wedge shaped in order to even out the shoulder slope a little bit. You can customise your shoulder pads to your shoulder slope, making them more wedge shaped for slope shoulders and less wedge shaped for square shoulders.
Helen: Shoulder pads should curve over your shoulder from the front to the back. You can buy moulded pads, in which case the work’s already done for you. Or if you’re making your own, you can pad stitch them to hold that curve in place. Closetcore has a free pattern for shoulder pads and sleeve heads that will show you how to do it, which is great.
And speaking of sleeve heads, these are basically pieces of padding with a bit of canvas for extra structure. They’re attached to the sleeves at the sleeve cap, and they keep the sleeves from crumpling at the edge of the shoulder pads and at the front where your arms reach forward. Isn’t tailoring magical?
Caroline: It so is. Finally, we’re going to talk about shoulder embellishments. So first up ruffles and flounces.
Helen: Yes, one of our newer patterns at Helen’s Closet, the Lawrence Top and Dress, has an option for flounces at the shoulders. I have a couple, and I love how floaty they are. It just feels special when I’m wearing this. And the pattern piece is really neat, too. It’s, like, an oval donut shape with an off centre hole, but when it goes into your armscye, it turns into a fluttery sleeve. And it’s sewn just like a sleeve, too. So if you know how to sew a sleeve, you can totally sew this ruffle.
Caroline: You can add flounces and ruffles to your me-mades, even ones that already have sleeves. You’ll just sandwich the flounce or ruffle between the armscye and the sleeve cap when you sew the sleeve seam. It might be easier to sew in flat, although that could make the seam at the underarm extra bulky. I think it depends. On a lightweight fabric it wouldn’t matter, but you might want to sew the sleeves in the round if you’re working with a heavier fabric.
Helen: Piping is another really cool detail that draws attention to the lines of a garment, and with heavier fabrics like canvas and wool, piping can define the shoulders and help them keep a nice shape.
Caroline: Epaulettes are so cool. They were first used in military regalia, and they still are. They’re those golden shoulder coverings with fringe that falls over the sleeve cap, but they’ve been used in fashion for a long, long time now. And they come in styles that are about as far away from military as you can get with sequins, beads, long fringe, lace, even feathers. If you search Etsy for epaulettes, you’ll see some amazing finds. I feel like we need more epaulettes in the world.
Helen: Oh, totally. I mean, I just love that look, especially with the beaded fringe, because you just want to shake your shoulders, like, nonstop.
Caroline: I know, a fringe, you just want to shimmy, right?
Helen: Yeah. Tabs are another really nice shoulder detail. They feel, kind of, outdoorsy. They usually come up from the centre of the sleeve cap and button near the collar. Fun fact, shoulder tabs are like an early version of military epaulettes. The tabs were used to secure shoulder sashes and belts.
And later on, they evolved into the shiny metallic things that we think of as epaulettes. But those made soldiers too easy to see, so eventually the military went back to tabs for everything but the dress uniform.
So in civilian wear, they’re popular in utility style garments like safari shirts and scout uniforms. I sewed a pattern from Deer and Doe once with shoulder epaulettes, the Lupin Jacket. I really liked that one. It had these really cute little buttons on the shoulders.
Caroline: Love it. I’ve seen some tops that have a tab that’s attached at the shoulder, but under the sleeve, you can roll up the sleeve and then button the tab and it will hold it up. It’s called a roll tab. You usually find them lower down on the sleeves, but they can be up at the shoulders, too.
Helen: Yeah, those are really cool. I remember owning some shirts back in the day that had those tabs. I feel like they’re less common now.
Caroline: I know. It’s, kind of, like, a early aughts style.
Helen: Right?
Caroline: Probably going to come back.
Helen: I know, which meaning that it’s, like, super trendy, and we’re just really out of touch. Yeah. Literally, everyone has sleeve tabs now, Caroline. Oh, my god.
Caroline: Dang, I should have kept all those shirts, all those Gap shirts from 2005. Alright, well, that’s all we have on shoulders today. I think we have to start working on our heads, knees, and toes episodes. What do you think, Helen?
Helen: Oh, my gosh. Stop it. Get out.
Caroline: Shoulda thought about it sooner.
Helen: I think this episode might have been my idea, too. I can’t remember, but I definitely shoulda thought a little harder about that.
Caroline: Oh, my gosh. Pun city over here.
Helen: That’s it for today’s episode of Love to Sew! You can find me, Helen, at Helen’s Closet Patterns and Cedar Quilt Co. and Caroline at Blackbird Fabrics and BF Patterns. We’re recording today in beautiful British Columbia, Canada.
Caroline: You can support Love to Sew and get access to bonus content by subscribing on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. You even get access to the back catalogue of bonus episodes. That’s over 75 hours of Love to Sew. Go to patreon.com/LoveToSew or check out our podcast page on Apple Podcasts for more info.
Helen: You can head to LoveToSewPodcast.com to find our show notes. They’re filled with links and pictures from this episode. If you’d like to get in touch with us, leave us a message at 1-844-SEW-WHAT. That’s 1-844-739-9428, or send us an email at hello@LoveToSewPodcast.com.
Caroline: Thanks to our amazing podcast team, Lisa Ruiz is our creative assistant. Jordan Moore of the PodCabin is our editor. Margaret Wakelee is our transcriber. And thank you for listening. We’ll talk to you next week.
Helen: Buh-bye.
Caroline: Bye!
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