Marfy sew along 1756 Pt 13 - Back stays, back and side construction

Its finally time to get this jacket actually looking like a jacket!

BACK STAY

To begin, pin your two back pieces together...

Matching strips/plaids as necessary..

Sew using a regular 2.5mm stitch length and press the seams open and flat using a press cloth.

(I also catch stitched my seams here as my fabric is fraying fast!)

Then, pin your muslin back stay onto your sewn panel...there will be some excess as we included ease in the piece (and seam allowances)

You want this stay to be a little loose, so that every time you put on or take off your jacket, the muslin will take the strain and not the fashion fabric..

and using either a machine or hand stitch, baste just outside of the seam allowance.

JOINING THE FRONTS TO THE BACK

I'm not going to lie, this is a bit tricky..

We are sewing two outward corners to two inward corners again..and here they need to match exactly on both sides..

I sewed organza onto the front shoulder pieces with basting thread just as we did for the main panels.. the collar is to the right of the picture.

and flipped it to the inside, using a quick basting stitch to hold it..

before pinning it oh so very carefully to the back panel!

I found that by pinning the center back seam to the back of the collar seam and then pinning the shoulder corner to the back on both sides I could keep everything a little more accurate.

I also flipped it over to the right side (before machine sewing) so I could measure both sides to make sure they matched..

I hand basted the entire back section using a big stitch and then went back over just the back center seam and corners using a very small hand stitch so they stayed in place as I machine sewed them.