Thumbhole Cuff Sleeve Extenders

Before I could sew, I had an Etsy favorites list about a mile long full of nothing but arm warmers. Living in Florida where it was a drippy 95° outside and a blustery 40° indoors, layers were my best friend, and one of the coolest layers in my opinion was arm warmers.

Funny that I haven’t sewn an obscene amount of these now that I actually can. But I do have a few thumbhole cuffs sewn to coordinate with my other makes where the sleeves ended up shorter than I prefer. And I’m adding another to that collection.

These thumbhole cuffs pair with my Revelry Cape and use up leftover scraps of black rib knit (Made of Love) and liverpool (So Sew English.)

The Pattern

The thumbhole cuff expansion pack from Sinclair Patterns has five variations of thumbholes. I haven’t strayed beyond the Cedar cuffs myself, although I imagine someday I will. The more I think about arm warmers again, the more inclined I feel to create a bunch of my own. I have plenty of scrap fabric to use up, so colorblocking these would definitely go toward scrap-busting.

Other Thoughts

There’s not much else to comment on with these. I’ve already critiqued the pattern instructions a little bit here. I will say, lighter fabrics are your friend with these cuffs as the seams can get quite bulky. The rib knit and liverpool combination work really well, although I would prefer a bit more stretch to the liverpool. With less stretch comes more restricted movement of your thumb.

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