Day 3 and today we get to SEW!!! YAY! Before we start I wanted to share with you a little bit about how I do the Sew-a-Longs. Since we don't decide the SAL pattern until the Friday before we start, I often don't have time to sew ahead. This means a lot of the time I am sewing the day before or morning of, photographing, and getting everything ready for that day's post! Since I have to photograph each step, I need decent light, and working at night just doesn't work for this. This may not be ideal, but it definitely ensures that each day's tasks are manageable! With 4 kids at home, my time is limited, and I know that you all are busy too! I always want to make sure that each day doesn't need more than 30min of sewing time!
Today's post is so late due to this tiny human. She is sweet and loving, but she despises when her Mama sews and will cry and whine and pull on her until she gives up and plays with her! hahahaha I suspect we may have to switch up how we do SAL's in the future, but for now it's a good thing I work best under pressure! Who wants to come nanny for me so I can get my work done?? I'll pay you in hugs and good conversation! Any takers?!?!?!
Ok, let's get sewing! Grab your collar pieces. Put one lining and one main collar piece right sides together. You are going to sew along the outside curved edge and the inside angled edge. Do this for both collar pieces. Trim your SA, I like to use pinking shears for this. I find it helps the collar lay nice and flat after sewing!
Take your collar pieces and turn RSO and iron. You can topstitch now if you like that look. I'm going to skip topstitching, because honestly, I hate to topstitch. Yes, I know that is a strong word, but I really don't like to do it, LOL
Now we are going to get to work on the bodice. First we need baste our collars onto the bodice, so grab both collar pieces and align them around the neckline. You want your collars to overlap about 1/2in. Take your seam gauge and measure to make sure your collars are placed correctly. Once they are sewn on, you will not see the overlap.
Pin the collar in place and baste using a 1/4in SA. Now you are going to take your back bodice pieces and pin the back pieces to the front bodice along the shoulder seams. Sew along your pinned seams and then the SA flat. Do this for the lining pieces too.
Place your main bodice right side up, and lay your lining bodice on top. Make sure the right side of your lining is touching the right side of your bodice. Pin along the back middle and around the neckline and Sew using a 1/2in SA.
Now it's time to clip your seams. Again I am going to use my pinking shears. These were gifted to me from my Mom when I started sewing 4 years ago. They are older than me and I would honestly be lost without them! If you don't have a pair, I highly recommend you buy them on your next trip to the fabric store!
We need to do some understitching, so take your bodice over to your ironing board and iron the SA towards the lining. Make sure the collar is towards the main fabric. Take over to your machine and sew using a scant SA as close to the line of stitching as possible. Make sure you are sewing wrong side up.
Turn the bodice right side out and iron. You have the start of a lovely Pepper bodice! Last thing we need to do for the day is topstitch up the back middle and stopping at the collar. Do this on both sides of the bodice.
Stand back in admiration of your work! Don't forget to snap a photo and add it to the daily album! Tomorrow we will be working on finishing our bodices and adding sleeves! See you then!
