On The Mend: Adding Length to Long Sleeves

I believe that I've mentioned before that my arms are quite long.  As an adolescent I always had a difficult time finding long sleeve shirts that would reach my wrists.

I have a favorite knit shirt, it is actually the shirt that the Lazy Saturday shirt is based on. I love it.  The problem that I had with the shirt, was that there was a thin layer of sheer fabric, that was  cut on the bias, at the end of the sleeve.  Even though the fabric was bias cut, it didn't provide the needed stretch for my hand to pass through the opening.  After not so many wears, the fabric began to fray, and it was in need of repair.

To resolve the problem, I cut off the sheer fabric, as close to the seam as I could.  I then found some wide stretch lace (I found it here), cut it to the length of the sleeve opening, and serged the seam shut.

I then hand sewed the lace onto the sleeve opening.  It provides the needed length to the sleeve, and solves my problem of too short of sleeves.

Did anyone else wear lace trimmed leggings as a little girl?  I has some that looked just about like this.

I'm sure that this same process could be used on any long sleeved knit shirt.  I recommend the stretch lace, it is quite pretty, and you'll be seeing it again in some upcoming projects.

Thanks for reading, happy mending.