SLEEVES FOR LARGE ARMS
If your arms are fat, don’t wear long shoulder dresses or kimono sleeves. They just aren’t meant for you. From point of style, becomingness, service, they will fail you all the way. On the other hand, don’t overdo narrow shoulders. Strike a happy medium.
Upper arms that are larger than the armhole are quite common, and the mistake is often made of fitting the armhole to the sleeve rather than the sleeve to the armhole. Have the armhole comfortable and smooth and set a gusset in the sleeves or increase the seams in cutting from the armhole to the elbow.
We can smile and aid our front, our back must always protect us by being at least inoffensive and pleasing.
Here are six ways to slenderize backs of dresses. Study them, find that which becomes you best. Once you have found your line, hold to it, but trim or effect it differently so that there is interest and variety. Observe Fashion illustrations carefully for backs with interesting length lines, and don’t allow yourself to forget that they are just as important as the front in achieving slenderness.
Remember that fulness at the hips is advisable, both as a protection to the dress and to insure more grace in sitting. A dress that draws up on the figure is always to be avoided.
I know a woman who was wearing size 44 dresses that hung on her unattractively and heavily. She said that she couldn’t get her arms into the sleeves of size 40 or 42 models. A wise saleswoman ripped the sleeve seams, inserted gussets and moulded her beautifully into a tailored frock size 40. Since then she looks 20 pounds lighter, all because of this little adjustment.
A bias sleeve is sometimes a distinct advantage for a stout arm. Take flannel or the heavy crêpes. A “tight as the skin” sleeve may be fitted that has “give” enough for comfort, yet not a quarter of an inch surplus. This type of sleeve is not suitable to flimsy materials, but very good for the firmer fabrics and is sometimes economical for cutting, as often the sleeve pattern can be placed on a true bias grain to advantage.
There are many details in sleeves to consider when you want to appear smaller than you actually are. Your success is due largely to your knowledge and its right application. So watch, look, and listen for every hint that will aid you in expressing perfection. It is attainable, and every achievement will stimulate greater desire and effort.
Years ago, in fitting a well-to-do woman, who was very “heavy set” in mind as well as in body, I remember that she would insist upon drawing her arms up, crossing them over her ample bosom and saying that the armhole was too tight and that more and more must be trimmed out until her waist was unbalanced—narrower across the front than it should be, wholly deforming the dress. No dress can be beautiful if it is out of balance; it is contrary to every rule of right design.
(Left)—A gusset at the under arm (left) is advisable when the arm is larger than the armhole.
(Center)—Sleeves cut on the true bias, as shown, are often advantageous when very close-fitting sleeves are desired.
(Right)—Beware of dresses that are too narrow across the chest. They always make the bust appear larger.
I know one clever designer who makes for her larger customers a very firm net foundation waist with low square neck in front and back and close-fitting sleeves that extend almost to the elbow. In this she puts the dress shields. This net foundation, especially the sleeve part, protects the dress, makes it last a third longer, and has the advantage of confining the arms slightly.
Measure and find out if it is your arms or your body you “need to treat” in slenderizing. Sometimes very large arms accompany medium bust measurements and vice versa. Knowing this makes for a wiser use of line.
If your arms are small in proportion to the bust, as in “A,” use a normal shoulder line.
If they are large in proportion to your bust, as in “B,” cut the shoulder high.
If arms and bust are large, use a length line on the sleeves, as in “C.”
A foundation lining of net that holds the sleeve is often advisable for sheer dresses. Elastic should hold it at the waist. The bottom of the sleeves and the neck may be bound or picoted.