[Heather M]

Hi, I’m new to this and trying to assemble the blouse now. I’ve gotten to step 3 in the blouse view and am completely stumped. Are there any tutorials or sew alongs I could follow? I just can’t seem to make sense of the diagrams and what I’m supposed to do with the facings, i.e. iron them away from the blouse as close to the point as possible??? I know I’m being a lump about this, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Sarvi]

Hi Heather, I’m afraid I haven’t made this yet but I’ll take a peek at the instructions after dinner and see if I can see what’s going on. Hopefully somebody who’s made it or blogged it already can chime in.

[Lightning McStitch]

Step 3 is folding the facing in half and pressing it.

I suspect you’re stuck at step 5?, right?

So, you’ve stitched the facing to the neckline with the raw edge of the facing lined up with the raw edge of the neckline.

Now trim your facing to be the same length as the neckline.

Trim the seam allowances of neckline and facing to 1/8″ and clip the curve if needed.

Now, lay it on your ironing board with the blouse back right side up. Press the facing up, away from the blouse back.

Turn the blouse over and fold the facing to the wrong side so that your stitched seam becomes the edge. Press then pin and stitch the facing to the blouse. Your stitching will be as close as possible to the folded edge of the facing.

I hope that helped. I don’t have any pictures but might try and take some on my next go at this pattern

[Heather M]

Thank you so much! Yes it’s very helpful. I’ll give it another go this afternoon and report back. 🙂

[Anonymous]

Hi

I also got stuck on this step and searched various blogs to see if there any images to break it down more easily with no luck- how did you get on in the end Heather?

[Heather M]

Truthfully I gave up Amanda 🙁 I just couldn’t seem to understand the instructions. As I was only working it up in a muslin, I just decided to move on to another pattern with photos. Maybe I need more experience to be able to do this one? Please let me know if you come across any tutorials with photos!

[Nicole]

This upsets me so much.

I think I need to make another and take some pictures. I wear my blouse all the time and it was such a fun sew.

[Lightning McStitch]

🙂 me too! But I’m not in a great hurry to make a third. If I wasn’t sewing kid’s stuff like crazy then I’d cut a mock neck piece in some awful fabric just for the pictures. Happy if you beat me to it Nicole.

[Sarvi]

Oh dear, I’m so sorry, I thought the question had been answered already — let me have a quick peep.

[sayiamyou]

Nicole, your photo tutes are extremely helpful for so many people. That would be great if you could help her out! Please don’t give up, Heather! It’s such a great project, and sometimes seeing things differently is all it takes! Nicole helped me several times when I began sewing years ago.

[Sarvi]

Ok, just to clarify, are you asking about step 3 on page 7, the understitching?

[Heather M]

Oh thank you so much for all of the replies! Yes I am talking about that part on page 7, steps 3-5 actually. I’m sure when I actually see it done I’ll be like ohhhhhh and feel really silly about it all.

[Sarvi]

Ok, I’m shooting you a little demo right now. Don’t feel silly, it was confusing to me, too, until I did understitching on a Class Picnic blouse where the main and lining pieces are easy to fold open and closed all the way. When you’re not working in a tight space it’s easier to see what you’re doing. Back in about 20-30 min!

[Sarvi]

Okey doke, let me know if this helps (and experienced gals, please let me know if I did it wrong, I’ve only done it once)!!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/hemoglobinhummingbird/sets/72157643800492264/

I didn’t have the pattern printed out, so I just eyeballed it and cut out a doll sized front blouse and facing from scraps. I dont’ actually have gigantic hands and a sewing machine the size of a Volvo.

[Sarvi]

Oh, and I didn’t trim the seam allowances before understitching because I was working with such a tiny piece of fabric, but I think otherwise I have it roughly right.