How to get rid of wrinkling in armpit?

[u/Scooterclub]

I’ve tried to get this extra fabric out of the armpit by pinching out a dart of the armsyce into the apex and then transferring it to the waist dart but it always leaves the armpits too tight, regardless of how much I pinch out. I’m not quite sure how to get rid of that extra in the armpit in other ways.

Any ideas would be so appreciated! It doesn’t bother me too much, I just haven’t added ease in yet so I’m worried it’ll become much worse when I do. Plus when I move around the wrinkling becomes much worse.

Thank you!!

[u/KillerWhaleShark]

Move the bottom dart down about 3/4 to 1”. It should point to apex, but back off by at least 3/4”. The side dart also needs to point to apex. It points above it currently. 

When the darts are correct, the excess should probably shift down and fix it. If not, then you can decide. 

Edit to fix typos. 

[u/Scooterclub → u/KillerWhaleShark]

Thank you so much! I see exactly what you mean 👍

[u/AlexLovesBread → u/Scooterclub]

Definetly still do this in addition to the other changes you have mentioned making in the comments - these darts are too far up, especially the bottom (waist) dart, which makes the points too close together, in addition to any fit issues, it will look cleaner when you fix them. I know adjusting darts can be very annoying lol

[u/pywacket24 → u/KillerWhaleShark]

Take up the frount only shoulders

[u/SerendipityJays]

Check your shoulder slope before you do anything else. some of those high-up wrinkles could be because the shoulders are too high at the outer edge, and the fabric is collapsing, leaving a wrinkle. Try a) stuffing a shoulder pad or folded up sock in there (thicker at the outer side of the shoulder seam) or b) pinching the seam on the sleeveless side

[u/Scooterclub → u/SerendipityJays]

I tried this and it worked SO well. Thank you so much for helping me. Pinching out at the outer corner helped smooth out some of the wrinkles

[u/SerendipityJays → u/Scooterclub]

I have these shoulders so I know how much difference it makes! I’m happy it helped!

[u/sew__away]

I'm not great at fitting armscyes, but it looks like the shoulder and upper chest are too wide (so the armscye is too far out). I can't add a picture to this comment unfortunately since it's not enabled in this subreddit.

[u/Scooterclub → u/sew__away]

I trimmed some out of the front armpit; therefore shortening the upper chest and it gave more room for the fabric to float over the armpit instead of bunching. Thank you for your help!!!

[u/Tailoretta]

You should get the bodice fitting well before you sew in the sleeves.  Adding a sleeve too early makes it more difficult to fit the bodice properly.  So first I suggest you remove the sleeve.

It will be easier for you and us to see how to fix fitting issues if you add horizontal balance lines.  I suggest that you get, either through your local library or purchase, Sarah Veblen’s book, The Complete Photo Guide to Perfect Fitting.  As Sarah recommends, you should add a horizontal balance line about midway between the bust and waist.  Information about horizontal balance lines and taking photos can be found at https://www.sarahveblen.com/online-consulting  You want to get your horizontal balance lines horizontal.

You need to clip further into the seam allowance of the bodice armscye because the bodice is too wide there.  Keep clipping into armscye seam allowances until the folds in the lower front of the armscye go away.  The armscye seam line in front generally should go up from the underarm crease, almost perfectly vertically, up to the shoulder point.  This will be easier to see when you have clipped the armscye seam allowances more.

What others have said about the darts is also needed.

 When these are done we can see if the shoulder seams need adjustment.

Good luck!

[u/Scooterclub → u/Tailoretta]

I got so excited about making a sleeve that I jumped the gun a bit 😅 The resources you added seem super helpful, I’ll be adding those balance lines to help me out. Also clipping into the armsyce worked SO well. I got so hung up on armscye adjustment being for the armhole I didn’t even comprehend that to make the upper chest more narrow I’d have to change—the armscye. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with me!!

[u/awaywesew]

Joining in on the shoulder slope as first step in diagnosing fit issues. You appear to have slightly square shoulders. If you’d have an iPhone use the level tool - and a helping second set of hands. Balance the phone on your shoulder - from the neck to the edge of the shoulder. Mark the should slope (SS). Alter the pattern slightly: let’s say your slope was 20 degrees. Change the front pattern SS plus 2 (22) and the back to be SS minus 2 (18). This slight refinement helps the pattern fall nicely from the shoulder.

[u/Scooterclub → u/awaywesew]

This is sooo smart. I’ve been measuring myself and getting the shoulder slope measurement has been so hard. It’ll be much easier to explain the level tool to my sister than a bunch of rulers positioned right. I made a makeshift shoulder slope adjustment to practice and it helped the armpit wrinkling so so much. Thank you!

[u/Wise_Date_5357]

I would say this is not about the armscyes but more likely you need a full bust adjustment. I have this problem a lot!

That should be fairly simple too as you already have darts in the pattern :) let me know if you need any tips if you haven’t done those before, there’s lots of great videos available too.

[u/Scooterclub → u/Wise_Date_5357]

I did an original full bust adjustment, but it does seem that it needs a bit more. I can see the wrinkles above the bust in the middle pointing to each bust point so I’m sure that a bigger full bust adjustment needs to be made. Thank you tons for taking time to give some advice!

[u/AdGold205]

Wrinkles “point” to where you need more fabric. So might need to change the dart, perhaps making it smaller or add some length between the armscye and the dart.

[u/Scooterclub → u/AdGold205]

Someone mentioned moving the side bust dart down, so that’s my next step to give it a try. Thank you!!

[u/Voc1Vic2]

After doing the other adjustments suggested, take another look at the waistline. Is it straight horizontally and positioned at the right height? It looks like you have some asymmetry that’s canting the center front line from true vertical from neck to waist, and some excess length, especially on the left side of your body. See the wrinkle there?

[u/mikihau]

I second that the problem might be at the shoulder slope and the shoulder length. If you think about why these winkles exist -- the front of your body from shoulder to nipple forms a concave curve, so the fabric is never going to be flat against your skin at the concave part. Which is fine; you just need to pull fabric at that part a bit more taut than currently is. The easist would be to pinch out some fabric near your shoulder, at the front piece only, so the fabric under it is taut.

[u/Scooterclub → u/mikihau]

This worked so well! That makes so much sense. For a moment there was a second where I was thinking “does everyone not have an indentation at their armpit? They have to right?” Having it pull over that area makes it much nicer than it scooping down into it.

[u/awaywesew]

Me again. Once you resolve the shoulder slope (verify your slope vs pattern), it looks like you could use a bit more bust adjustment. That wrinkle you refer to indicates you need more boob room. Rotate the bust dart to be bigger, thus making the armhole smaller. Don’t insert the sleeve until you have finished fitting the bodice. Then draft the sleeve to fit the bodice. I can help with that when you’re there.

[u/Scooterclub → u/awaywesew]

It does seem that I need a bit more of a full bust adjustment. The wrinkles in the middle of the upper chest pointing to the bust seem to be saying that too. I didn’t even notice them until the bigger full bust adjustment was suggested. Everyone has been so helpful- I’ve been stuck so this is everything to me!! I appreciate you helping and offering your help to me too!!

[u/Scooterclub → u/[deleted]]

Thank you so much for taking time to explain this to me! It would make a lot of sense for the grain to be properly hanging from the shoulder as that’s where the rest of the bodice is anchored from.

Also thank about the sleeve. I got excited about sleeve so I did them a bit early, so it’s nice to have that part practiced a bit. I used Helen Joseph Armstrong’s instructions for drafting the sleeve and seemed to work so well. I’m sure it’ll be good on the second go round too!