D4E1 Adult Scratch Sleeves

This is a project for the postgraduate 'Makerskills for Occupational Therapists'. I made these scratch sleeves for a client of mine. She has a mental disability and lives in a care center. When she is alone during quiet moments, she starts fidgetting and scratches her own skin. The sleeves are meant to keep her from scratching and hurting herself.

• Sewing machine (or needle and thread)
• Longsleeve
• Measuring tape
• Padded fabric
• Fabric scissors
• Sewing pins
• Pencil

I cut off the bottom half of the longsleeve. I drew the cutting line with a pencil (just below the sternum) when the client was wearing the shirt and added 2cm seam allowance.

I folded the seam allowance in and sewed it into place.

The fabric of the longsleeve I used was pretty warm. To make the sleeves more comfortable during warm summer days, I made an opening in the back. I drew the opening with a pencil when the client was wearing the shirt.

To finish the opening, I used some left over fabric from the bottom half of the longsleeve. I measured the edge for the length and cut off a 6 cm wide strip, double foulded it, pinned it an sewed it into place.

I ironed the shirt to remove some of the sewing-stretch I created.

To make sure my client couldn't still hurt herself through the sleeves, I added padded fabric at the end of the sleeves.

(Because of the fabric I was using, I had to fould it and sew the edges, so my client wouldn't be touching the padding wool.)

I measured the hand of my client (widest circumference and wrist-fingertips) to know I needed a 25cm by 15cm piece of fabric and added 2cm seam allowance. I then sewed the 15cm edges together to obtain a cilinder.

After this, I put one of the sleeves through the cilinder, pinned the edges together and sewed it into place.

To secure the padded cilinder, I added some stiches by hand.

I repeated these steps for the other sleeve.