I’ve been trying to get the hang of sweaters but I can’t seem to make the sleeves/shoulders/side seams line up when assembling them.
Also, some patterns say to “Place center of cast-off edge of sleeve to shoulder seam. Set in sleeve, easing sleevehead into armhole.”
What does “set in sleeve” and “ease sleevehead” mean exactly? I think it means to pin the pieces together before sewing, but so far this hasn’t worked for me. I have a couple of practice sweaters with very bulky and pointy underarms!
Don’t just pin the shoulder seams together, sew them or use a 3 needle BO to join them. Then you would need to line up the top of the sleeve cap centered and sew that in. In sewing patterns, the sleeve cap is slightly larger than the armhole and you ‘ease’ the extra material into it. You need that for it to fit right as the fabric isn’t stretchable. With knitting, it’s very stretchable but some patterns may also allow extra on the cap to fit it into the armhole.
So you’d first sew the shoulder seams, then set in the sleeves and finally sew the side and sleeve seams.
I usually pin the shoulder and sleeve cap together first then I pin the ends of the sleeve to the ends of the back and the fronts. If there is any sleeve left ease it in toward the underarm, and sew in.