First step. Fusible bias on neck edge to stabilize.
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| Fusible bias along the cut neck edge of garment Second step. Sew binding to neck edge, right sides together, slightly pulling the binding only until it just starts to cup towards you, being careful to keep edge even. This may take some practice. Don't stretch the neck edge or you'll wind up with an awful looking garment. If the fabric is 100% cotton knit, you may be able to steam it back in place, but it's generally not pretty. |
Fourth step. Take upper cut edge of binding, and fold it to meet the stitched upper edge of the neck edge with the fusible bias. Press as you go around.
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| Left side is the fused neck edge. Right side is the folded over bias neck binding |
Fifth step. Carefully bring the folded edge of the neck binding over the neck edge of the garment, with the top edge of the bias and sewn neck edge reinforcing the top of your finished neck edge. It's kind of like having interfacing inside a piece, but with it being bias, it gives a bit of stretch. When you're doing this, use a seam gauge to be sure the outside of the binding is even, giving a professional looking neck edge.
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| Outside of tee with bias binding pinned in place prior to stitching in the ditch |
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| Inside of bias binding with folded edge pinned prior to stitching in the ditch
Carefully stitch in the ditch. Press. This will give you a very professional high end neck binding with no raw edges showing.
As I said a few posts back, I have a wedding to attend in mid June and I'm trying to figure out an outfit for grandmother of the bride. It's going to be outdoors and at least mostly casual. I have been thinking I'd make the Bootstraps #45699, which is a combination of a sleeveless shirt dress and a wrap dress. I love the look of it, but since I've never worn a wrap dress wasn't quite positive how it would work. To that end, I started with a "muslin" of the skirt portion thinking I could wear it as a swimsuit cover-up.
I traced off the skirt pattern, added my waistband from my Burda shorts pattern, and used a "remnant" I found in the quilt shop. It's two yards, but the fabric is very wide. I think it was 106" wide! I like the skirt, although I am reminded that I don't like skirts much because of my large inner thighs that rub together. Here's a quick picture, then back to the grindstone.
I am also going to audition a sheath dress, and have the tutorial on fitting from Threads magazine January of 2014, Issue 170. I want to see which one will look the best. I also have two jacket patterns to audition. The sheath dress and one of the jackets are from Butterick #5719. I think this looks quite nice and may fit the bill.
The jacket I'm thinking about to go with the Bootstraps pattern is one I saw in a winter white wool on someone's Artisan's Square Sewing Guild SWAP page. Don't remember whose, but it was lovely. It's Simplicity #2229, View C, only without the ties at the waist. I'll have to check the neck edge versus my dress neck edge and see if I can get them to work nicely together.
So excited today! I just got my "new" sewing machine. For almost 20 years, I'd used a Pfaff 1475 CD, which was an amazing machine. I got talked into buying a new one, but got a middle of the line, instead of top of the line machine due to cost. I've rued the day I did that, and finally when the middle machine touch screen went out and I found out it would cost $300 plus to fix and had to be shipped to Ohio for repairs, taking a couple of weeks at least, I decided to look for another machine.
On a retirement income, top of the line Pfaff machines are prohibitive in price, BUT I found a completely reconditioned and guaranteed 1475 CD on E-Bay for what I consider a reasonable price. It arrived yesterday evening and I'm excited to get back in and start sewing again.
I have my next garment cut out and ready to go. It's a pair of grey cotton twill shorts using my now TNT Burda pattern. Can't wait to get them in rotation with my new tees.
More later!
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