Bear with me here...I'm having some internet issues tonight and have been feeling unwell today with a razor blade throat and the sniffles.
Before we join the yoke and dress panels together I thought I'd talk a bit about seam construction.
After you have attached your dress panels you are going to want to sew up those side seams and try your dress on for size. Given the slim fit of the dress there is a chance that you will want to play with your 5/8" seam allowance so I reccommend sewing the dress up at 1/2" for starters and using a longer stitch length than normal in cae you need to unpick.
If you want to take it in slightly then you can and if you want to give yourself a bit more room you can move your side seam out as far as 1/4".
Once you are happy with the placement of your side seams then you will need to decide on your seam construction.
If you have an overlocker/serger then this is the obvious way to finish your side seams. I have one so that's how I finish mine. Just don't jump in an serge that seam straight up just in case you want to let it out!
If you don't then you can run a zig zag stitch along the seam to finish. This adds strength and prevents it from fraying too much. If your seams are 5/8" then you could even use pinking shears to cut away the excess.
If you don't have an overlocker/serger and want to have a more finished seam than with the zig zag stitch your best option is to sew your seams flat.
Start by ironing the seam open (don't mind my horrible ironing board cover!).
Next fold the seam under.
Finish by edgestiching the seam in place on either side of the seam. Once finished the seam will look like this on the outside with the raw edges concealed on the inside.
I practiced this method on the sleeves of the dress I am making for Lil. It is a bit harder to sew seams like this on the sleeves because you don't have much room to play with when feeding them through the machine.
French Seams are my favourite finish. Sewing a french seam completely seals in the raw edges and gives and 'heirloom' finish. You only want to sew french seams if you are absolutely sure that you want to sew the full 5/8" seam.
Start by sewing a scant* 1/4" seam with wrong sides of the dress together. *scant 1/4" seam means that it is a little bit less than 1/4".
Once you have sewn the seams on either side turn the dress through with right sides together. Iron the dress flat. Sew the side seams again to encase the raw edge. You will aim to sew a 3/8" seam to esure that you get all the raw edges.
You can trim back the excess a bit before you sew the second time but you don't want to cut away too much incase the fabric pulls back through.
So, I know I'm running a day behind, but I will hope to post the next two steps tomorrow. For now I need to take my sore throat and sniffly nose to bed!
How are you getting on with your dress yoke?
Tatum xx