One of the most important functional aspects of a bespoke suit is its small armhole. Or rather, the way a large sleeve can be worked into a small armhole. It means the sleeve is separated, and can move around without dragging the body with it.

However, the extra material of the sleeve can be worked into different parts of that armhole, depending on what you want the final sleevehead to look like. The top can be smooth and clean, with all the fullness at the bottom; or roped, with a thick wad of padding at the top to sit around; or it can fall in lots of little ripples, in the Neapolitan manner.

In this, the third video with tailor Jennie Adamson, we see how she puts a sleevehead together. There’s a lot in there, and I’m amazed it can all fit together so beautifully.

I hope you like it and, as with the first video on pockets and the second on lapels, it gives you newfound appreciation of your bespoke clothing. They’re such beautiful pieces of both art and engineering.

Jennie is a a coatmaker for Gieves & Hawkes, a pattern maker for brands like The Deck and Casablanca, and a cutter and maker of her own tailoring. More on her here. The location is Cockpit Arts in Bloomsbury, a wonderful home for craftspeople that’s just behind Lamb’s Conduit Street.

Thank you to Vitale Barberis Canonico for supporting this series. The cloth we used is my favourite VBC material, the four-ply high-twist wool in the Ascot bunch from Drapers. The suit being made is for Jennie, and I am wearing my suit from Assisi in the same material.

You can see the first video in the series here. Other similar videos: