How to lengthen the sleeves on a jacket

Children grow up very quickly. Every year I have to buy a new jacket. It’s not so offensive if it’s very small. But it happens that the jacket fits well, but the sleeves have become a little short. As a rule, literally 5 centimeters are missing, and because of this it looks completely ugly.

Or it happens that you are already tired of your own, short, 3/4 length sleeves on your jacket.

In such a situation, a little help will come alteration of the jacket - lengthening the sleeves using cuffs. Even if you don’t have much sewing experience, don’t be upset. This task is also feasible for beginners in needlework.

Extend the sleeves with cuffs

A cuff is an element of a sleeve that forms its end. The length can be:

• narrow (1-3 cm);
• medium (3-6 cm);
• long (6-20 cm).

Long ones can be up to the elbow. Recently, it has become fashionable to wear jackets with cuffs that cover the palm and have a special hole for the thumb.

The cuffs can be the same color as the clothing or contrasting.Even if the jacket was originally the same color, when altered it can be made completely different.

Having looked carefully at the jacket, you must first determine what kind of clothing item should be made in terms of length, color and from what material.

Selecting material for cuffs

Cuffs can be made from:

• thick cotton;
• wool knitwear;
• leather, fur, plush, lace;
• connected cuff blanks.

There are two manufacturing methods:

1. Sew from scraps of fabric.
2. Sew on the circular knitted piece.

If you don’t have enough skill and patience to knit the workpiece, then you can use a few tricks:

1. To lengthen it, you can cut off the desired part from knitted gloves or mittens.
2. Can be made from warm tights by cutting off two identical parts equal to two lengths of the required extension with seam allowance.
3. Or use cuffs from an old sweater.
4. You can also cut pieces from an old knitted scarf.

Having decided on the material, we get to work.

Rework process

In that case, when circular knitted blanks are used as cuffs, you just need to make sure that they are the right size: width and length. If necessary, adjust the size.

This item of clothing can be attached externally or internally. If the jacket originally had cuffs, then it is better to attach new ones on the outside, covering the old ones. If they were not there, then it would be more beautiful to sew them so that they come out from the inside of the sleeve. In this case, the workpiece should be 5 cm longer than the required length.

If the extension is done with scraps of fabric, then first you need to sew blanks from them. To do this you need:

1. Measure the sleeve along the bottom edge.
2. Cut 4 rectangles of fabric, the length of which is equal to the width of the sleeve, the width is the length of the extension, adding 5 cm in the case of the inner cuff. A 1 cm seam allowance is added to both sizes.
3. Sew the resulting parts on the sides to make four cylinders.
4. Fold them in pairs, right sides facing each other.
5. Sew in a circle the ends that will be the bottom of the elongated sleeve.
6. Turn right sides out. Press seams if necessary.

Attention! Don't forget to process the edges of the parts. They need to be processed on an overlock, if there is none, sew them with a zigzag on a machine, or, in extreme cases, manually with an overcast stitch.

   

Thus, we got two blanks that remained to be attached to the jacket. Further actions are carried out regardless of what was chosen as the material for the alteration: flaps or round blanks.

To sew on the outer cuffs, you need:

1. The blanks are turned right side inward and put on the sleeve. The bottom of the sleeve and the top of the cuff are connected.
2. Then they are sewn by machine or by hand. It is better to use a zigzag seam so that the clothing items do not lose their elasticity.
3. Products are turned right side out.

 

The internal ones are sewn as follows:

1. The sleeve of the jacket is turned inside out, and the blank is put on it with the wrong side up. In this case, the bottom of the cuff should be a continuation of the sleeve. The upper edge of the workpiece is located 5 cm above its edge.
2. The two elements are sewn together using a machine seam. If the jacket has external seams on the sleeves, then new ones should duplicate them. If the sleeve is smooth, then you will have to decorate the seam with braid on the outside. It is not recommended to sew only to the lining - it may tear.
3. The product is turned right side out.

In a similar way, you can lengthen boring 3/4 sleeves for yourself:

As you can see, lengthening the sleeves of a jacket is not at all difficult. And if the sleeves become too small, it is not at all necessary to immediately run out and buy new clothes.