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Sewing Skirt View A

Once we have our pockets on our skirt front for view, eh it's? Now time to assemble the back pieces to the skirt friend it's a really straightforward side seem just a nice straight line all the way down the side, so we're going to line up our edges here this is my skirt back piece and I'm gonna put right sides together. There is a notch right here to remind you that you are putting the right side the correct side with the correct side, not meeting the right side because we don't want to get it confused with the center back, even though it's a dirndl the notches there to remind you where everything should be so as usual, we're going to pin at the top the edge of the fabric we're going to pin at that match and then we're going to pin at the bottom and then of course we're going to pin in between we'll keep all of those edges lined up once we're pinned, we're going to so that all the way down using our regular straight stitch and our five eight seem allowance in a backstage at the beginni...

ng, I think this is just a nice and easy straight long scheme sort of nice to have a uv straight team after some classic step well back since at the bottom and just like all of the other seems that we've done that were just straightforward seems like this, like on the bodice you can finish the's edges of the fabric however you prefer, I like to trim them and have and then finished them with a street three step zigzag. I do use my searcher my over lock machine a lot for this step, but since a lot of people don't own a searcher, it's really nice to know what your other choices are just using entirely your straight such machine so I'm going to trim that seem allowance in half and changed to my three steps exact that we used earlier when we constructed the bodice and I'm gonna so all the way down the edge using a one eight seem allowance way that way, that third stitch of the three goes right off no backs it's necessary for your zigzagging? I've already sown one skirt back on prior to this moment, so now we have our skirt back our full skirt front with both of our pocket, this and now the remaining skirt back at this point, we will wanna press this theme, pushing the same allowance towards the back, and we'll press down the back and on the front, just like we've done in other scenes. So now that we have our pockets sewn to the skirt front view eh we also have the skirt backs zone at our side seems and trimmed and pressed and finished with our three steps exact it's time to do our based stitch across the top this is where the skirt attach is to the waistband ah based itch as you know we've used it earlier is a temporary stitch it's going to be at least a four point oh stitch length we don't want a back stitch at the beginning and end because it's just meant to be there temporarily we've used it before when we were attaching the waste fans together because we wanted to hold things together but in this instance we actually are going to be using it to actually do are gathering we're going to so above and below our seem allowance so our seem allowances five eights were to do are based itching at three quarters which is six states and three eight so that way it's just above and below where are seem allowances when we go to attach it to the waist fan we're going to be doing it in three sections we're going based from the center back to the side seam and then we're going to stop leave nice long thread tales and then we're going based from the side seam across the front to the other side seam and then we'll do a third section across the other part of the back that way, we only have three sections together instead of one long seen it's hard to even out the gathering when you do it that way, so we'll turn our such length up to four point. Oh, and we're going to start about an inch in from the edge of the fabric at the center bag. The reason being is that that's where a zipper is going to go and we don't want the gathers to go into the zipper seam we have you wanna back out just a hair, so the gathers aren't going to be caught into the zipper, so I'm going to give myself about an inch, and I'm gonna leave nice long thread tales. I have something to grab to do my gathering, and I'm going to sew at the three eighths from the center, back to the side scene, stop it that side, seam and pull it out, give myself nice long fred tales and then pulled some nice long threat tails for the second part, you khun d'oh, all of the three eighths, or you can do the three eight's and the three quarters by section, and I'm going to do that way, so I'm going to do my three quarters on that same back piece if your machine doesn't have a six eight smart mine actually doesn't you can see that I've market here with a piece of washing tape I've just measured over with my c engage an inch our eighth of an inch from the five eight smart to find where my six states would be and I use it so frequently that I just leave that washing tape there all the time and again nice long red tails so that's the first section which is the one of the back panels you can see I've got my stitch up my three eighths and my three quarters nice long based stitch and we're going to repeat that on the front piece from side seem to side seam at my side seem again so again I'm pulling it out and giving myself nice long thread tales I'm gonna go back to where I started and now do that same long stitch at thesixty eight or three quarters mark and lastly we'll do that same based stitch on the three eighths and the three quarters on the second back section and just like when I started at the very beginning I left about an inch from the center back on sewn gonna do the same here and stop about an inch before I hit my center back so that I can leave that part ungh ather dh so it won't interfere with my zipper seam all right now that we have all of that basting them it's time to pin it to the bottom and we have our bodies here that we've already done with our waste pan attached so it's going to go at the bottom of the ways fan we want to so the gathers ah we want to so the skirt too the waistband with the gather side up so we want a pin on that side so I'm placing right sides together so the right side of the skirt where I've basted with the right side of the bottom of the waste fan and I'm gonna pin it all of those is key spots so I'm starting here at my center nagy we should be too little triangle notches and this is a scene where it's really a good idea to pin perpendicular so vertical I'm going to separate all of those based threads here the first side seam because I want the four that are on this sign facing me so I should have these four threads right here and the four threads on the inside are all going to be tucked down in because we don't want to accidentally pull on any of those I'm gonna tuck those down in and I'm going to pin my side seam and I'm gonna put a pin on both sides of the side seems so one pin to the right of the side seam and one pin to the left of the side seam and you'll find out why that's important in a moment we go to gather at the end where the center back is I want to do that same thing and separate my thread so I have the two that are facing me and the two that are on the inside are tucked in in a way and I'm gonna put two pins here one at the very edge but I have about an inch gap before my based stitches start so I want to put a second pin right there where the base stitches begin and I need to repeat that side seam and sent her back pinning on the opposite side of the skirt separate my threads so I just have these four line up that seem and put a pin on either side of the scene and then again at the center back separate my threads line up the back edge and the top edge and put two pins wanted the very edge and one right where my based stitching begins all right so we're anchored and all of the key spots and now we're ready to gather the best way I know how to explain how to gather is comparing this to a curtain and a curtain rod the fabric is sort of like the curtain and the threads are sort of like the rod I'm going to actually hold the threads todd with my right hand and pull the fabric away from it so I'm sort of pulling away from this center point where I'm holding and I'm not pulling the threads as much as I'm holding them tight while I pull the fabric away from that point, so looks it sounds harder than it really is, but it's a good sort of parallels how you're moving things along, so I'm holding these threats and I'm simply just pushing the fabric down the threads. I don't want a big bunch because then there's a chance I might break my thread and if I break the threat, I have to pull the basij is out and re based and start over and nobody wants that, so I'm just going to scoot the gathering down, and once this distance matches this distance, then I know I've gathered enough. It doesn't have to be perfect gathering at this point, we're just looking for the distance from the side seem to the center back to match and that's pretty close once I know it pretty close, then I'm going to take the threads here at the side seam that air next to the pin on this side of the seam and I'm going to anchor them in place by twisting them around like a figure eight that way, when I pushed the gathers towards it, they can't come undone, they're going to just stop at that point and I'm going to do the same thing on this side by putting the threads around the pin that's closest and as a figure, eight, this is why we needed these two pins and why we need these two pins here is well, because there's going to be to anchor points here with the two gathering, so these times are now anchored down, but obviously my gathering is not very well distributed again, so I simply just scoot the gathers along until I feel comfortable with their distribution. You don't want any big flat spots, and you don't want any big, punchy spots. It could take a little bit of finessing and it's totally okay. If this moment takes you a little bit of time, once you feel comfortable with how the gathering is distributed, going to make sure this top edge is lined up with this edge of the fabric and I'm gonna pin it in place again, I'm gonna be pinning perpendicular to my seem, and this is definitely a moment where I like the heads of the pins to be above my actual fabric because it's really easy to them to get lost uh in the gathering, and then you might accidentally go over one of them with your machine. So that's this first section perfect, so the other back section is going to be exactly the same that I just did, but the center is going to be a little bit different because I have a center anchor. And these two sections and this isn't a break the way that the other one wass but the process is very much the same I'm gonna grab these two threads that air here I'm gonna hold them while I scoot gathers down towards the center point same principle just nice and gentle don't want to break our threads and I wantto get the distance from the side seem to the center to be equal. This is why those center notches are really, really important matches are important in general, but that center one is a really critical point because you don't want your gathers to be all off centered once they are the same distance I'm going to anchor down the threads at that side seem again, but because these threads are attached to the second half here on the front, I'm not going to straighten them out because it's actually going to affect the rest, so I'm going to repeat that gathering on this side by grabbing those threads gathering along until these two are the same distance. So right here you can see that I actually over gathered this is bowing out because it's large it's longer than the section, so all I actually have to do is sort of scoot out some of these gathers until they're the same length it's almost easier to over, gather a little bit and then just undo a little bit I'm going toe anger that section down and now that those two ends are anchored in its pinned in the center, I could do that same procedure where I straighten out and evenly distribute all of my gathers and again take your time with this until you're happy with the way all the gathers look and then once you're satisfied we will pin again making sure that top edge is all lined up and we will pin along that whole scene that's the first half some people have gathering feet on their machines I know some friends that really love afoot that like does the gathering for you but I'm kind of old school and I really prefer to do hand gathering sort of meditative but you can't rush in just have to get into it and then of course we have that last section which is the other back panel we're going to gather it exactly the same way we did the other back panel once we get all of the gathers pin to the waistband it's time to sew it in place. This is a permanent stitch, of course, so we're going to be sewing with our regular stitch links, which is two and a half for my quote wait fabric again you might be using something a little bit longer or a little bit shorter we want to do a back stitch and because this is an intersection the two best center back seems where we're starting and stopping this so that gathers on is where the zipper again, that's where I was it was going to be and so it's really a great idea that make sure you start and stop right on your five aids so that they're right at the same place, so that when we go to put the zipper in all of those intersections along with center back actually lined up so at that at this point in my classes, when I'm teaching with my students in person, when we go to put the zipper and there's always a moment like, I wish all of those moments in the center back line up. But it's these moments, actually that equal a well lined up zipper center back in the end because this is what determines where things lineup later, so we want to be really sure to start and stop right on our five eighths and I have my figure eight waiting for me just an inch in from the edge, so I'm going to pull that pin out, separate my to thread so I don't so over them and I'm gonna be sewing right down the center of where my base stitches are be careful not to get all this extra fabric cut caught up and under just make sure you keep it to the sign we're gonna stop for everything and we're just going right over those gather be sure to keep the right edge of the fabric lined up no I'm at my side seem so I have to figure eights here the first one I'm gonna take the pin out and separate my threads on so a little bit until I get to my second one and again separate the threads just keep going along that end it's good to pause periodically and just rotate your fabric and make sure everything it's where it should be easy to let this amount of skirt and fabric sort of poll so I always keep it up here on my table instead of having it draping down because it can pull on dh stretch the fabric and warp what's happening and I'm at my other side seam so I have my first figure aim on my second one hiding under there it's much easier to pull the base stitches out later if you don't so over them that's why I'm separating them when I get them and again I want to be really careful to end right on my seem allowance so that it lines up what the other side when I go to put my zipper and later so this find there are a lot of based stitches to be pulled out and because they're not very long that one pulled out really quick and easy I find most sewers find this moment of just pulling the base which is out really easy super satisfying so you too may find that really satisfying so wanna pull all of those out? I'm starting with the back panels because they're much shorter so I'm pulling out one of the threads and then you have thie robin thread these air the threads I started mastic with the center front is a really long panel so you may want to with either small paris scissors or your seam ripper you may want to break the thread in the center so that you only have half the wits to pull out and you'll find that it pulls out a lot easier when you don't have to try to pull out the entire with of the center front but we do actually need to take those out last one awesome so way have are gathering seen here so it's own to our waist fan but as usual we need to finish this in some way I again like to trim all of this in half and three steps executive I find that because this is kind of a big bulky scene there's the waste van with with interfacing there's the lining and then there's the skirt there's a lot of layers in here and I find that if I shorten it the seam allowance and then zigzag it and then we're going to press it it keeps a nice flat finish on the inside we're going to be very, very careful and we're going to trim all of this in half this isn't a scene that I grade unlike other scenes because I like to finish it in one unit but that's totally just personal preference if you would prefer to grade this and finish each edge independently, you can do that. I just find that that's actually much more challenging to d'oh because you have to finish it somehow because it is going to be exposed if you have a surge er this would be a really good seem toe use your surgery on because it would really tighten it up and meet leave it really nice and clean, but you do have to do something since this is exposed and it will just unravel as you wear it and wash it but as always, be really careful when you're trimming because we're so far along now this would be a real bummer toe accidentally had a hole in the middle of your dress. All right, so now that that's all trimmed off, I'm going to do my three subs exact justice we've done up to this point, so I'm going to use a one eighth seem allowance and all machines are a little bit different so how you set up the three steps exact on your machine or the zigzag is going to be a little bit different but just as a if I how I'm setting my number I'm using a wig before a length of one and a half that's the settings that I prefer to use on my machine it might be a little bit different on your machine but that's a good starting point, you can see that it just squishes all of the layers together and it leaves it really nice so the three step in the end is a really nice finish and you can see that once I pull this out it's sort of squishes all of the layers together and it leaves a really nice small seem on the inside and we're gonna press this in a moment so that it's not just sticking out this way but it's a nice small finish and some people have asked, why don't I have? Why am I not finishing here the same way that I finish here? Well, we definitely don't want this kind of finishing right here underneath our bust that would be really awkward place toe have it but at the skirt seem it's completely fine to have it down here because it's, especially since it's leading into a full gathered skirt and it doesn't change the way that the fit is at all at that point but it would definitely affect the seam right underneath our bust if we had it there so now let's go and press this way we have our gathers all sewn and attach your waist, and we need to press them, but the gathering does create a little bit of a challenge in pressing because we don't want to set her iron right on top of these gathers and squish them. We want to actually press up into the gathers and we want to press along the seam and flatten that seem, but we have this big iron, so it's a little bit of a challenge, so how we do that is we're going to just put the tip of the iron reach up here and sort of keep this, todd, and I'm gonna put the tip of the iron up in between the gathers as I pressed the seam allowance up and I'm just going in between my gathers and not actually forming any little pinches or creases. I'm also going to go up above it and just used the hot edge of the iron and press right along the seam, but you can see that the remainder of the iron is not actually touching the garment and I'm just pressing that seem allowance up and I'm flattening right along that as you can see it right there and then I want to sneak up in here again and press the's gathers, keeping that seem allowance going up the one spot you really do want to take care with is right here. Where we started at the very edge because again, this is where we wanted to intersect with the other side and we don't want there to be any fabric sort of gaped in there. We want that to be flat and open, so it's a really good spot to make sure that the fabric is pulled down and that that seem allowances pressed really, really well so that that spot is nice and flat on the front side, and we'll flip that over and you can see it here still a little bit of a like bumped us from the fabric, so I'm going to give that an extra bit of pressing so that when I go to put my zipper and later it's nice and flat, and I'm again going to just use the side of my iron right along that edge. I can feel under my fingers that my seem allowance still up towards the way span, so I'm not actually pressing up here, but you can see impressing right at that seem to keep it from being soft, too nice and crisp, and we'll continue that all the way across the entire waste.