[Masha Richart]

Today while my daughter was wearing her new blouse, the elastic on one of the shoulders sprang loose from one side of the casing. Clearly I didn’t sew it down well enough – maybe the stitching was too close to the edge. On each side, I sewed back and forth in a straight line two or three times. When I mended the elastic, I did three lines of stitching, back and forth, with the first and last line about 1/4 of an inch apart. Is this good enough? What do you do? I am new to sewing oft-worn kids’ clothes and want to make sure I’m making them durable enough!

[sayiamyou]

That has happened twice to me now on the same shoulder of the same picnic blouse. I think my problem is trimming too close to the casing. I think what you’ve done should be sturdy enough. Normally, my standard operating procedure is to stitch a couple times over the original closing stitch and that works fine.

[wendy]

I usually backstitch the entire line and it’s been fine. When it’s gone wrong it’s because I’ve pulled the elastic out a bit too much to trim it, trimming too close to the stitches that attach it to the casing.

[mela]

Yikes, this happened to me, too! it was definately the result of me trying to hide the elastic and cutting it too close to the stitching. I have just learned to leave a little tab of elastic past the stitching. it seems to have addressed the issue.

[Masha Richart]

Thanks everyone. I was also trying to hide the elastic completely. Won’t do that anymore!

[meleliza]

This happened to my first attempts too. I thought I stitched over it quite a few times to secure, but I also suspect my problem was trimming to close. I think elastic must ravel in the wash. I fixed the problem this time around by following the very clever finishing instructions for the Lisette Souvenir blouse. (pics are on my blog http://queenoftheflies.blogspot.com/2012/03/mommy-and-girl.html) You’ll have to read these for yourself because it’s unusual, but essentially the yoke facing encloses the shoulder seams, so you don’t have to trim the elastic. It will be hidden inside. I’ve washed this a couple of times and haven’t had any trouble yet.

[mela]

thank you for the tip. I’ll have to pick up the pattern at the next joann’s sale. I love learning new techniques!

[mela]

Melezia, I took your advice and it worked grea! I got the Lisette Souvenir pattern at a Joann’s .99 sale and just followed those instructions for the top. It resulted in a nicely finished inside top!

[mkhs]

I just made the class picnic up as a nightgown. I wanted the elastic to be completely encased for a smooth finish on the inside. I trimmed the elastic so that it stuck out of the casing by 1/4″, then tucked the end inside the casing and backstitched over the doubled-up elastic. I think it will solve the problem of the elastic unraveling.

BTW, this is my new favorite O+S basic! It’s such a great pattern, and I love having woven shirts that my daughter can put on herself!

[meleliza]

Yes, I love this top too! I make it winter in cozy flannel and in spring in lighter weight fabrics. This spring I plan to try it as a short sleeved version after spying something very similar on the Citronille website.