Drop sleeves are amongst the easiest and cosiest sleeve to knit. There’s plenty of ease, freedom of movement, and the feeling of being as close as humanly possible to an outdoor wearable blanket.
I am the kind of human with flesh on a small skeleton, so a traditional drop – one with a completely straight sleeve top and no inset – makes me look like I’m drowning. Or that I tried to go for the “I stole my boyfriend’s sweater” look, and ended up looking like a child who tried to wear Mummy’s clothes. One is cute. The other is not.
This is where the modified drop sleeve comes in. Bar the Alyssum sweater, it hasn’t had much representation in my portfolio. But since I’ve been working on a block that doesn’t look like a sloppy joe, I decided it was time to set down exactly why I love this shape.
In short: You get all the benefits of a drop sleeve without the discomfort of too much underarm fabric. And the key to understanding this is a concept called sleeve lift.
What is sleeve lift in sweater design?
The pattern cutters out there will know about this, so bear with me. What sleeve lift refers to is the angle that the sleeve of a garment makes in relation to the bodice when laid flat. In the simplest terms, a 90 degree angle equals all the range in the world and all the bunching under the arm. An angle closer to 30 degrees corresponds to a more tailored fit and the likelihood of your belly being on show when you raise your arms.
When you couple this with the Five Pillars of Fit Guide, pattern alterations start to make a lot more sense.
Clever apparel folk of the past used gussets to circumvent this, but we don’t always get them in our clothes today. They’re not always wanted and they’re not always practical. And the modified drop sleeve evolved as an alternative style or solution that didn’t require much engineering.
A sleeve with the best of both worlds
The angle of the sleeve is 90 degrees, which is a sure sign of maximum freedom of movement — but the inset reduces the drape that would make it look like a sack in worsted/Aran weight yarn.
This Uniqlo cardigan (above right) has been with me for 10+ years, 95% cotton, 5% cashmere. As a side note, 95% of my shop-bought knits are modified drop sleeves. It’s just taken me a long time to understand and feel why they work so well. The sleeve cut is one thing, and the fabrication is another. When I was in the throes of my book manuscript, I lived in this cardigan as much as I did Alyssum (above left). Same sleeve lift, but a shallower inset = more underarm drape. Here, the lighter fabric makes the difference, keeping it on the right side of the line, but the comfort level is the same.
I personally prefer a modified drop to a hardcore drop because there’s less bunching under the arms when you wear a coat. The shallow inset — rather than the straight seam of a drop — makes a world of difference. You can still cast off straight at the top if working bottom up, or pick up the stitches if working down to the cuff. No curved sleevehead necessary, no managing curves, and the shoulder seam can still extend past your shoulder bone.
Modified Drop Sleeves | Over to You
So – more to come from modified drop sleeves. (Or modified drop shoulders, if you prefer it that way around!) Until then, tell me: Are they already a favourite of yours? Or are you not their biggest fan? Let me know in the comments.
