Simplicity 4714 (1943): Part 4: Sleeve facings

I finally got desperate and attached the sleeve facings last night. I brought the sleeves to work with me to finish over lunch.

I cut them from scrap fabric. I've had this lightweight cotton forever; it's dull dark red with little English soldiers printed on it. Kind of weird. I actually messed up the first time and cut them too short; you'll notice in the other pictures that the soldiers have rotated 90 degrees because I had to re-cut the facings. Doh!

I pinned them on and sewed them along the sleeve edge with the machine. This was a huge pain in the neck, with all those ruffles on there.

(Notice the soldiers have miraculously changed orientation.)

Finishing them by hand was a pain, too. I didn't turn the sleeves inside-out because I was afraid that the facings would then be too large and bunch when I turned them back. But that meant I had to sort of sew inside the sleeve a little bit. Thank goodness for pins.

Looks like a squash blossom. On acid.

(The colors are not true here. The blue is much darker and more neutral. I had to mess with the picture to get the details to stand out.)

I told myself that I cut the facings from scrap because I don't have much navy blue left and need to save it for the skirt trim and possibly the pockets, and the Kona I bought to replace it doesn't match. I can't change blues in the middle of a project, obviously.

The truth is, though, that I have a little tiny fascination with scrap facings and I kind of like that sneaky bit of red, and the little soldiers. It's like a private joke.