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Sewing the Bodice

Lesson 9 from: Sew Along: The Sylvie Dress

Christine Haynes

Sewing the Bodice

Lesson 9 from: Sew Along: The Sylvie Dress

Christine Haynes

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Lesson Info

9. Sewing the Bodice

Lesson Info

Sewing the Bodice

So he's so impressed all of the darts on our bodies pieces and now we're going to assemble the bodies together. This is the same for either of you a or b so no matter what details you've chosen from the waistband down if you're going to do different skirts or the piping or not doesn't matter we're all going to be doing this part together and if you're following along in the instructions steps five six we're going to take our bodies front piece and place it right side up and we're going to be pinning our bodies back pieces to the front right science together in a lineup are edges of the fabric and pin them together starting here at the side seam in the lineup at the bottom edge here the top edge where they come together, the under arms seem and then of course we're going to line up our notches and pin there as well he always wanna pin it those spots first the edges of the fabric and your notch and then put pins in between wherever necessary. So I'm just going to place one pin in between...

so I have four pins along my side seam when you do the same at the shoulder seem there is no notch at the shoulder seem that's it's pretty small short seems so I'm simply lining up the edges of the fabric and pitting on those two edges first and then I'm gonna place one pin in the middle I like to pin as much as possible before I go to my machine so that is the one piece of the back so into the bodice front and I'm going to repeat that and pin the exact same spot with the other bodies back so that when I got on my machine both are pinned and ready to go and I can sit down and so all of them all the scenes at the same time so again with a line up my notches and pin in between and then the same at the shoulder seem line up the edges and then place one pin in the metal excellent so both back bodies pieces air now pinned to the front and I can sew them in place I'm gonna continue to use a regular two point five stitch length because I'm using medium quote late fabric if you're using a lighter fabric or heavier fabric it's always a good idea to test this part on a scrap to just confirm that that's the right length always want to go a little longer the heavier the fabric and the little ah tighter and shorter the thinner the fabric so if I were using a lawn or of wall I might want to come down to a two or if I'm using a canvas weight or bark cloth I might want to sell this on three pause for every pin not good for your machine so over your pins and in the back seat is beginning and end of each seem and we haven't talked about seem allowance at all it's written in the instructions but this is the first step where we really encountered are seem allowance seem allowance for this project is five aids which is the most common scene allowance in patterns it's important actually so right at the right seem allowance because that's what's what was built into the pattern itself and if I so at a bigger or smaller seem allowance I'm actually making the end result bigger or smaller by whatever the difference I've chosen so it at so it's important to be selling all of these seems right at your five eight seem allowance so that it ends up the crack scythe way have one more side seemed to go and how all floor of those seams are sewn but we of course need to finish the edge of the fabric is a woven fabric, which means of course it's going to unravel every time I wash and where it the fabrics the thread of the fabric itself is going toe just fall apart and it will really weaken the stitch that I've just made so I need to do something to finish this off if you're a more experienced or you might have a surgery or an over lock machine, you can absolutely at this point run over this with your surgery there are a number of ways in which you can finish this my personal preferences to trim the seam allowance in half and so the edges of the steam allowance together with a three step big bag. I want to use my little small five and cheers for this because I want to not make any mistakes and absolutely at this point don't want to cut my actual dress, so I'm just simply cutting my same allowance in half and I'm gonna do that on all four like I said, you could press these open and finish each edge with his exact you could press you could sew them with a surgery. There are a number of ways that you can finish the edge of the fabric, but you need to do something to prevent the threads of the fabric from unraveling or you'll have gone through all this work and we'll pop a hole and you're seeing somewhere when that will be sad. So I'm simply trimming my seem allowance in half and now I'm going to switch to a three step zigzag if you've never used that stitch before, it looks very similar to a regular zigzag stitch. The difference is that a regulars exact stitch is a point is one stitch from point to point ah three steps zigzag is three stitches from point to point and I find that it leaves the fabric a little bit flatter, and it doesn't crumple the fabric up the way a regular zigzag can push the fabric. I like to do it right on the edge of the fabric, so I'm using a one uh eight seem allowance, and the third of the three stitches actually follows right off the edge of the fabric so that it's wrapping the thread around the ed, I'll show you that a little bit closer here so you can see here the zigzag is actually three stitches, and the very point is actually not visible because it goes off the edge and it wraps all of the threads together so that that's all now one solid unit and it's, also a nice small seem allowance on the inside of your garment. So it's not very bulky, and we're going to do that on all four of these teams, all right? And now, after you finish our seems we need to press them, pressing your seems is not to be underestimated. It really elevates your garment from looking kind of soft and homemade to something kind of crisp, so it's really important after you. So it seemed to take a moment, right? Then before you continue your construction and actually press that seem, it also sets the stitches with the heat of the iron, so we're going to press all four of those it seems that we just showed on the bottas we're going to be pressing the seam allowance towards the back because I saw them and finish them all in one. I'd like to just press it in one unit, but like I said before, if you've decided to press them open and finish them individually, that's fine, too, but because I have one thing to press in one direction or the other, I'm gonna be pressing them towards the back, so when a press it on the inside of the fabric, that is my side seam and one of my shoulder seams and I will do the same on the other side, pressing the seam towards the back and the other shoulder, and then I'm going to take a moment and press it on the right side as well, just to make sure that I didn't create any accidental, um gaps in the fabric. Sometimes you think this is nice and smooth, but there's actually a little bit of ah, lip there. So you want to really take a moment to make sure that its press nice and smooth and you'll be? Glad that you did, because after we do this part, we're going to be attaching the waistband here, and if this wasn't pressed really nice, then it would be kind of hard to make sure that everything was lined up because it would be kind of a soft seem. But now that it's all pressed crisp, you'll know that everything is lined up. Really wow! And as I'm handling this, I mentioned it during the state's teaching, but it's really important to still be really gentle with that curve of the neckline and being careful not to pull this part and stretch any of this out. So you want to be still really delicate with that? Now that we have the bodice actually assembled, we're going to be moving on to the waist fan in order to make sure that you don't actually stretch this out. It's a good moment to take it up in the back together where that center backs team is and maybe hanging on a hanger so that it's out of the way and it's not getting stretched and manhandled, which can just work this neckline and then we move on to the waist fan.

Class Materials

Bonus with Purchase

Christine Haynes - Sylvie Dress Instructions.pdf
Christine Haynes - Sylvie Dress Pattern.pdf
Christine Haynes - Supply List.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

Esther Gonzalez
 

Great lessons, very detailed and explained clearly. Patterns are easy to work with. Highly recommend it to anyone who loves sewing or is even new to sewing because it won't leave you confused

Maureen Nevers
 

I loved Christine's clear, pleasant style of instruction. Unfortunately I had to stop watching 1/2 way through - is there really a dog barking in the background through the whole video recording?! Even if I could tune it out (it was pretty faint mostly), my 2 cocker spaniels were not fooled! Perhaps I'll try to resume watching with headphones ... Wish that had been addressed at the time of recording or editing, though 😐

Chelvy Braggs
 

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