Monday, January 30, 2012

Simpicity 2188 - part 4

On to part 4; shoulder and side seams.

Before we start stitching, I'd like to talk a bit about seam allowances.  A seam allowance is the area between the stitching line and the raw edge of your fabric when you are sewing 2 pattern pieces together.  As I said before, the standard seam allowance on most commercial patterns is 5/8", unless otherwise stated in the instructions.  How are we supposed to know exactly how wide 5/8" is when we're sewing?
Usually, the throat plate (that's what the metal plate under your presser foot and over your bobbin case is called) will be marked with lines.  If you're lucky, those lines will even be marked with the corresponding measurements!  I realize that it's very had to see the markings here, so I removed the the throat plate from my machine for a better shot.
 If your machine doesn't have the proper markings, you can easily measure out the amount of your seam allowance from the needle and mark it with tape or one of these handy magnetic seam guides.  So, when you're stitching your pieces together, this is what it should look like:
The raw edge of my fabric is right up against the 5/8" line.  You'll want to keep a close eye on this line as you sew, probably even more so than the needle itself.  Alright!  It's time to start stitching.

Shoulder Seams
With right sides together, match the front and back pieces at the shoulders using your notches, and pin.
Stitch, remembering to backstitch at the beginning and the end of the seam. 
Repeat the same thing on the other shoulder seam.

Press shoulder seams open.  I like to press them on the wrong side first, and then press again on the right side.

Finish the seams.  A seam finish is just a treatment that can be applied to the raw edge of your seams to prevent fraying and make them look neat.  Pattern instructions usually don't tell you to do this.  I guess it's technically an optional step, but, to me, it's just a good habit to get into.  There are several different seam finishes you could use.  Serging is popular, but I don't own a serger (AKA an overlock machine).  My current favorite is a 3 step zig-zag, which looks like a normal zig-zag stitch, but is really made up of tiny straight stitches, like this:
If this isn't available on your machine, a regular zig-zag will do just fine.  When finishing seams, you want to stitch fairly close to the raw edge.

When you're through, it should look something like this:
You can trim the excess between your stitching and raw edge to neaten things up even more.  
If you use a serger, you won't have trip trim the excess.  The machine does it automatically.

Side Seams
I know that some of you were having a bit of trouble matching up the front and the back of this top, and that one piece seemed longer than the other.  I read the same thing from one of the reviewers on the Pattern Review website.   True, the back piece is longer than the front.  But!  If you sew up your shoulder seams first, and then move on to the side seams, matching up the notches and dots, The back and front will end up being the same length at the bottom when you're done.  When you wear the blouse, the shoulder seam will sit slightly in front of your shoulder rather than smack dab down the middle of the top of your shoulder.  This is just the way it was designed.

Right sides together, pin the front and back pieces together, matching notches and dots.
Stitch, remembering to STOP stitching at the dot.  Don't forget to backstitch at the beginning and end of your seam!

Here's a better look at how much space there is between the dot and your shoulder seam.  This is the armhole of your blouse.

Repeat the same thing for the other side seam.  Press the seams open.  This step can be made a little easier if you slip the blouse over your ironing board.
Finish the seams, just as you did for your shoulder seams.  Hooray!  You've just completed the shoulder and side seams.  Your project should start to resemble an actual, wearable garment!
Next up, neck facings.  Oooooh.  Sounds scary, but I promise they're not!


  1. thank you for continuing to post these steps, even though i can't quite sew along with you... maybe this weekend!

  2. You're welcome! All of the steps will be here waiting for your whenever you're readyl

  3. Why can't all patterns come with step-by-step real pictures? This so helps!!

  4. So glad the photos help! I was afraid that I added too many. Thank you for putting up with their spotty quality. I'm no photographer, and I still can't seem to figure out the best spot for photo taking in our new apartment!