V8787 - neckline tutorial

Apologies if this tutorial ends up being confusing.  When I first muddled my way through it I confused myself, but by the end of the 5 dresses it was really easy.

Vogue 8787 uses a facing for the neckline, but because I was working with ponti and actually don't like facings, I wanted to use bias strips instead.  So I made up a whole heap of bias strips using the left over fabric.

I sewed the gathering section using the longest stitch (pattern piece 2).
I sewed the back pieces together.
I sewed the shoulder seams together.
I sewed the bias strip around the neckline, sewing good sides facing together.  I sewed the bias strip at least an inch past the matching notch on the gathered front piece (pattern piece 2).

I rolled the bias to the inside, and pressed.  I make sure that I can see the outer fabric when I press. Look at that random piece of thread sticking up there!

I then top stiched.  I started on the shoulder seam of the un-gathered side (pattern piece 2) and sewed all the way around.  You can see on the left hand side of the this photo, that the bias strip hasn't been top stiched, whereas the other pieces have been.

Close up of where I started my top stitch.  Later I will thread a needle with the loose top thread, stab through were I started stitching and tie a knot.

Pinned the gathered side to the other half, matching notches. Lots of pins! Can you see that I folded out the bias strip. This makes matching the edges a little tricky but not hard.

Other side of the pinning.  Here you can really see the bias strip over hanging the seam edge.

Putting this side (the ungathered side) I sew the front pieces together.  I use the stitching that is already there from the bias stitching to guide where I need to sew.  I sewed a little to the left of it. You can see the notch and the extra bias that runs past it. 

Now that the two fronts are together, I flip it right side out and check to see if I have caught the fabric, the gathers and made sure that you can't see the bias stitching.

Give it a nice press.

Now start the top stitching at the point where your previous top stitching ends when it goes under the un-gathered side of the front.  See above photo.

Stop the shoulder seam where your previous top stitching began.

This is what it should look like on the inside after you have top stitched.

I also added elastic to the waist band seam because the skirt was a little heavy in this fabric.

Crochet success

Yesterday a friend on Facebook shared a picture of crochet birds that she wanted to have for her daughter.  I happened to have the amigurumi book that they were from and made her one.

I also got around to photographing my yarn paper chains.

To make your own you need:

8 ply yarn - mine has pompoms already attached!

Size 4 crochet hook

Method:

Step 1. 

Chain 5 plus 3 more chains.  The last 3 chains will act as your first treble stitch.

Step 2.  

Count 4 chains back from the hook. 

Step 3. 

Treble stitch into the previous chain. 

Step 4. 

Treble into remaining chains. You should now have 6 trebles.

Step 5.  

Chain 2 and turn your work around so that you can continue. The 2 chain becomes your first treble.

Step 6. 

This bit can be tricky - count 4 chain shapes from your hook. The last two chain shapes will actually be above the previous row's trebles.

Step 7. 

Treble into remaining chain shapes. You should have 6 trebles now on this row.

Step 8. 

Repeat steps 5-7 for a total of 16 rows. Cut thread leaving it long so that you can sew with it in the next step, and then finish off using a slip stitch knot thing.

Step 9. 

Sew into a chain link - I used whip stich. Weave in ends.

Step 10. 

Pick a different colour. Repeat all over again - make sure to sew the new chain through the previous chain loop. I sometimes forgot to do that.