Lessons

Lesson Info

Applying the Neck Binding

So those we have are finding press we're going to apply it to the neckline first thing we're going to do is unzip are zipper and we want to open up where the zipper is. So right now it's closed up because it's has just been zipped, but we actually want to flip that open so that this zipper tape and the seam allowance or both open and flat because we actually want to do the binding beyond the zipper teeth and all the way to the edge of the fabric we're going to take our binding and open it all the way up and we're gonna pin with the folded side towards the right side so it's the right sides together meaning this is the right side of the binding and when you open that up that would still remain the right side and we're going to line up the top edge and pin that in place. We've talked a lot about not stretching out the neck line. This is the final moment where we're finding the neckline and handling the neckline so we really do want to be careful as we're working with it toe not accidenta...

lly stretch it out so all I'm doing is just lining this up and pitting it in place it is a curve so it may be feels a little awkward like it's not actually a straight line but the excess of the outer heard just goes beyond this point, so I'm just pulling the seam binding up to the edge of the fabric we'll make our way all the way around, so unlike other patterns, some patterns have neck finding an arm hole binding of different links for every size, and I didn't do that with this pattern there's one neck finding length and there's one arm hole binding length for all the sizes that means it's going to be too long for almost everybody, and the reason that I decided to do that was because the neckline and the arm hall are the two spots on the style of dress that often gets slightly altered based on personal fed, so if you need to drop the arm hole a little bit lower to accommodate your arms or if you want to raise it a little bit, you don't have to then worry about oh no well, what size of the scene binding am I going to use now that I've made this slight alteration? It doesn't matter at all you will just be using the same one and sizing it to fit whatever the arm hole or whatever the neckline length is after your alteration, we'll continue pinning all the way around until we reach the other center bank when you get to those points where there's a seam, you want to make sure that it's staying in the same direction that we've pressed in so usually pin right at that point so that I'm holding the seam allowance the way that I wanted to remain and then again when I get to the center back I want to make sure that the scene has been opened and the zipper tape and the seam allowance are all turned out and I'm gonna pin there and then I have obviously some excess finding and I'm not going to worry about trimming it perfect I'm just going to trim that little bit off so that I'll trim it to fit exactly right on later so now we're going to sell this on and those groups that we pressed they're going to serve as our guide so it's nice and easy that first fold closest to the neckline is actually right where we're going to so we're going to start right at the edge of the fabric and I'm gonna sink my needle in and move that first pin and I'm gonna do my back stitch right there before I actually get onto the zipper because we're where we are on the zipper were almost always going to be above that little stopper but I still take it really cautious as I go over the zipper as to be careful not to hit it too hard and breaking needle so with a regular stitch I'm just sewing right in that first group keeping the right edge of my fabric in line with my binding I am occasionally turning this fabric on the left side, alec, because I don't want that to get caught on your knees because it is a herd, I have to make a big shift, an adjustment with my fabric, I always make sure I think my needle down in before I do that so that it doesn't get out of position. I was making my way around, keeping the raj in line and keeping this extra fabric out of the way so that it doesn't get hung up underneath and then as I get to the other side, I'm again going to approach that zipper teeth with caution and you can hand prank all right if you're feeling unsure so you don't hit anything hard and then when you get to the very end, of course we will back such again because this is a curve we need to trim that seem allowance in half so it will be reduced so it can fit down in with the curve so very carefully I'm going to trim that seem allowance that I just sewed right here, I'm going to be trimming that in half, so what's left is roughly about an eighth of an inch and again be really careful as you do this, we're almost done, so we really don't want to accidentally cut something I'm just carefully making my way all the way around. Can be a little bit of a nerve racking moment because you do want to be really careful when that this point aiken trim this now tow line up with that rock edge of the fabric straighten that out a little bit. All right. So now what's gonna happen is that seem allowance that we just created is going to get pressed so that this is flat the scene we just sodas flat and then what's gonna happen and this is going to fold over it and into the inside and top stitched but first we have to press that scene we just made so it's flat so that it's not soft right here, otherwise it can easily the binding can easily be seen on the right side if you're not careful impress that part really chris so we're gonna go to the iron for a second and then back here again that the first stitch done and now we need to press so if you look at the inside here we want this seem allowance that we just trimmed going up towards the binding. So as I lay this down on my ham and I really recommend using a ham for this part because of the curve of the neckline, I want to be really aware that that is all going up and that it's not tucked down and under so I want to going up so I shouldn't feel it under my finger right here it should be going up and I just want to press that seemed that I just sewed I don't wanna unprecendented this other stuff that we've taken our time to dio seem to be really careful to keep the binding out of the way and I can feel my seem allowance going the right direction under my hand and you can see already that look so much nicer than it's really chris I'm gonna rotate that around make sure that my seem allowance is going the right way and press that seem but again nothing else you can see here where the ham really helps with that curve we'll continue around being careful not to make extra creases over there and the rest of the dress if possible and then we'll make our way the other part of the back once we get this pressed we're going toe fold it all to the inside so that it's ready to sell so what I'm going to do now if you've lost any of the creases along the way you might want to re crease right here at this moment if you've lost this middle crease you may want to talk that under and give that another little press because we should have that first fold tucked under and then flip down but the main agenda is to flip that now we keep that under there to the inside so first is making sure that centerfold is closed and then second it is rotating the entire binding to the inside the bias finding is on the bias so that makes it extra stretchy so it should have no problem working all the way around the curve but you can see I'm working with the curve here I'm with the iron making sure it shaped to the neckline don't worry too much about the beginning and then because we're going to treat that guy a little bit differently once we're done so again we're going to just confirm that that centerfold is still nice and crisp and then I'm going to fold the binding to the inside I like to see just the ever so slight bit of my fabric from the right side on the inside so that I know that I'm rolling that to the inside and we'll see no of no sign of the binding on the right side of the dress once this is all finished I'm just going to continue this confirming of the center crease and then rolling it all to the inside and you can see right here the with the curve he wanted to go straight it would just make these weird puckers but it really will just curve along with you if you move it like that the awesome thing about finding bias fighting it's very very malleable the last little bit of the end rolling that in time before we take it to the machine we want a pin that in place again thinking about how I'm going to be sitting in my machine it would always have my extra fabric to the left so I like to have my pinheads facing me so that I can pull them out easily while I'm selling I find it a lot easier to press everything and then pin it instead of trying to press and pin and press and pin almost done here the last bit so were folded in pressed and pinned and now we're gonna take it to the sewing machine so we're going to top stitch this binding that we just pressed and penned in place but we do want to make really careful one specific spot we don't actually want to so over the teeth of the zipper because then we won't be able to pull our zipper above that stitch line so we'll be on the inside and we won't really be able to see the teeth we can see it a little bit right here and of course we can see our stitch line right here so we're going to start just inside the zipper teeth not actually sewing over the zipper teeth and then we're going to stitch as close as we can to the inside of that bias finding you do want of course try to be careful and consistent all the way around because this is an exposed top stitch all the way around the neckline we want to do our back steps at the beginning, you want to work with the curve you see here that the fabric is curving to the right. A lot of sewing instinct is to pull it straight because you want to be sewing straight, but you can see that all of this puckering happens if I do that, I really want to keep the fabric flat, and since this is a curve that's the way to keep it flat so really try to support it in the position that it's trying to be in and just sort so it as it's going in in that shape instead of trying to force it to be straight. So this is a good example of that curve I'm talking about if I bring it forward, you can see I'm totally going toe force a pinch right here, but if I leave it curved in the shape that it's meant to be in aiken support the fabric with my left hand, you see how that instantly smooths out right here that's a much better way to so it on that keeps everything smooth and will reduce any puckers from happening that's the front I'm the necklines that's especially the rest of it is much more and again, just like we did at the very beginning we don't want to actually so over our zipper way want to just get close to the teeth and do our backstage cut those threads off and that little bit that's unsung where those zipper teeth are is just going to get folded to the inside so here we have the top which lines up perfectly we love it when that happens and on the inside you can see that the zipper this part is just part of the seam allowance now so you can take this and whip stitch it down with a little needle and thread to the binding to just keep that flat so that that's just held down in place and that is the entire neck finding we do need to press it just flatten that out and we'll do that next the very last part of the neck finding is we need to press it if you don't press it you can see that this is just going to lift out and stick out but we really want that to be flat up against your body and that's simply just done by pressing I have mentioned that a few times during the class already that pressing really is what elevates a garment from sort of handmade and soft just crispin professional looking so of course going to use our ham again because we have a curve and we're really just simply going to give that a really good press working with the curve of the neckline putting the ham under there same on the sign. And then the same on the back. Press that. And you can actually press right on top of where that zipper comes in, to flatten that a little bit and press that part as well, so that this is no longer sticking out. And now it's, nice and flat and clean and professional looking the way we wanted to say.