A nice and easy one today!
Your facing should still be in two parts at the moment. The first thing we need to do is join the collar seam so that it becomes one continuous piece.
Use a regular stitch length, matching any pattern or stripe before starting...
Then press and grade the seams as flat as possible on the collar and facing to reduce bulk.
When done, you will now see that we have a additional two corners in the facing ...these are to help the collar facing sit flat on the shoulder seam join...
There are a couple of ways we can deal with this...
A) Bag the lining and incorporate the corner when you join the two
B) Fell stitch the lining in place and reinforce the corner now
and as I love to fell stitch my lining, I will show that method here..
For anyone unfamiliar with a fell stitched lining, its simply a cut and assembled lining, hand stitched down around the collar, facings and hem. It allows for a nice amount of ease control when sewn and looks beautiful when finished ( I will do a step by step in the lining post)
Also by reinforcing my corners now I can stop any fraying from occurring in the future as well as create a nice sharp edge to attach the lining to.
I'm using the same techniques as before, show here and here, used for the front bodice corners and back shoulder/collar corner.
The organza is basted in place and then machine sewn to secure it permanently.
Its then folded back on itself to enclose the unfinished seams and define the sharp corner..
Before being very loosely catch stitched down..
JOINING THE FACING TO THE BODICE
Begin by pinning the center back collar seams together and the shoulder seams... before pinning all the way down the front to the hem.
My facing fit almost exactly to the jacket but if you have to ease yours in at all, distribute the excess throughout the entire facing before sewing, making sure that the all your seam joins meet
When pinned, flip your garment over to make sure that none of your hair canvas or fusible is incorporated into the facing...
If you find it is, cut any tailored interfacing away... your hair canvas needs to be a floating reinforcement, securing it will cause distortions in the fabric from pulling as well as additional seam bulk.
When machine sewing, start at the center back collar seam and sew down to the hem on one side before repeating this for the other side...
If you were to sew in a continuous seam from one side of the hem to the other, you would end up with some excess fabric on one joining piece as the feed dogs and foot move at slightly different speeds. This method keeps the two fabrics firmly together and the important seams matching.
(A walking foot would stop this from happening, if you have one)
When finished, snip your collar corners so they will point nicely when flipped and cut down your seams to an inch or less, grading if necessary.
Then press using a very hot iron, lots of steam or spray water and a press cloth... this will bed your stitches into the wool and reduce the loftiness of the fabric.
I also like to sew a running stitch down the inside of my facing here, catching the inner seam to make sure my seam favors the inside and can't be seen from the outside.
(Don't sew the hem section down, we need to be able to flip the facing tomorrow so the pockets can be sewn on)
Tomorrow lets talk pockets, hems and trim...
Have a great evening!
Leisa