[purlknitpurl]

Hi there, I am almost done with the dress, and realized I never finished the seams (either with zig zag, pinking , or overlock) on the sleeves and around where the yoke joins the bodice. I feel that usually the patterns say in the body of instructions to finish seams.. I went back and pinked a lll the side seams and pocket edge and then zig zagged the seams, think okay to leave the rest? What did I miss?

Best, Purl

[purlknitpurl]

Oops! It won’t let me edit my above first posting, but I meant to say “I went back and pinked all the side seams and pocket edge and then zig zagged the SIDE seams…” Thanks! Purl

[Masha Richart]

The instructions don’t always say to finish the seams – I’ve found myself in the same boat as you a few times – most notably with the Sailboat and Sunday Brunch skirts (I now write in “finish these seams now,” so I don’t make the same mistake the next time around). I like to finish all my seams because I don’t want my sewing to come apart in the wash, and I’m paranoid. I’m guessing the neck opening under the yoke won’t fray as much as the side seams would because it’s round and thus mostly cut on somewhat of a bias (but I’d still go back and zigzag).

This reminds me that Nicole had a good tip in her tutorial for the Playdate dress: http://fiveandcounting-motherof5.blogspot.com/2011/10/play-date-part-2.html; she says to finish the neckline after applying the (optional) flat piping but before attaching the yoke. I wrote this in my pattern so I would remember to do it again in the future.

[meleliza]

I always finish as I go, and I’m a huge fan of French seams so I plan ahead. For playdate, I bind the neck edge with wide bias before topstitching on the the yoke piece. Then I unpick the visible edge of the binding so it looks like flat piping. A nice finish and I wrote up directions to it somewhere.

[purlknitpurl]

Thanks so much for your replies! I will always remember to make sure I finish the seams. Am almost done so I will go ahead and zig zag now.

Meleliza, your suggestions are making me think I should definitely take a more advanced sewing class! Any thoughts, though, on where I can read on the web about “binding the neck edge with wide bias..”? It sounds like a beautiful way to finish your work!

[purlknitpurl]

By the way, I want to thank Nicole/Mother of 5, for her wonderful and very, very helpful tutorial on the playdate dress! Thank you for all your help!

And if anyone is reading this who made this dress, did you end up taking out your center basting stitches on the sleeves too, or just the center pleat?! Thanks!

[Nicole]

Well,aren’t you the sweetest girl!

Thank you.

From memory,the sleeve stitches are sewn in not basted.

Some girls like to leave the centre stitching in too,but I remove mine.

~Nicole~

[Masha Richart]

Yes, I also took out the center stitches, but not those on the sleeve.