MAE SEW-ALONG # 7 HEM & FINISHING TOUCHES & DONE!!

Hello again! Today is the final post for the Mae sew-along, we made it, Yay! I am getting so excited to see all your finished Mae blouses and open the contest for all you folks to win cool stuff, very,very exciting! 
Thank you to all who joined in, i have seen a lot of brand new faces, and its  so lovely to meet you all! And to all the ole regulars thank you for all your continued support for the patterns, the whole lot of ya are good eggs!

So let's kick off straight away. 

Yesterday's post we  attached the armhole facings and stitched up the bodice side seams, so if  you have completed these steps, then keep reading on. For the final post of the Mae sew-along we will be finishing off our Mae blouses by stitching up the hem, the buttonholes and sewing on the buttons. I hope you have some cute buttons ready :)

OK, let's do this:

HEM

1. First things, first create a 1/4'' hem, by folding up the bottom edge of the blouse. 
2. Stitch and press.





2. Now turn the bodice  back edge to the right side of the blouse, again along the button down back fold lines that should have been marked. This step is  just like we did at the neckline when attaching the neckline facing.. remember? Need a refresher, check it here.
3. Once you have folded that back edge to the right side of the blouse, stitch across this folded bodice back edge,  3/4'' away from the 1/4'' lower hem edge you have already created.The photo below will probably make this clearer.



Now,  this cool little trick coming up will get your hem corners nicely finished and professionally looking. 
4.Trim the bodice back edge close the stitching you just created, 3/4'' up from the hem edge. Trim it away to within 5/8'' of  the inner edge of the back bodice edge. Again see the photo below, it shows this step clearly.

5. You can now turn the centre back facing back  to the inside of the blouse, and as you do the 1/4'' hem you created will want to naturally fold underneath it, if it doesn't then make it! Again this step is basically the same as  what we did at the neckline edge.

Next up the final step to creating our hems.
6. Fold up the bottom edge of the blouse 1'' and over the bodice back edge.
7. Stitch and press your new hem.

And there you have it, you have completed your bodice hem, Ta Da!

Buttonholes & Buttons

Our last couple of steps till we are done, we need to create our buttonholes and sew on our buttons.

1. On the right side of the blouse, stitch the button holes horizontally into the left side of the bodice back.

2. Lap the left of the bodice over the right of the bodice back and match the buttons placement with the button holes already sewn in. Now you can sew on your fancy buttons you have chosen.

If you cant find the perfect button, why not make your own? Have a squizz at the recent tutorial i did on the how to make fabric covered buttons for your Mae.

The very last job before your done is to give your  newly created Mae blouse a nice big press all over, especially the scalloped neckline! 

Now go and out on your new Mae blouse and strut your stuff, oh and take some photos and upload them to the Flickr group!

For those of you who have had a memory lapse, below are the details  on how you can enter  into the Mae sew-along contest and also the most important part.. the dates you need to have them uploaded and ready to put up for voting:

One  must upload  your completed Mae blouse photos onto the Bluegingerdoll Flickr group  and also use the  tag Mae  on your photos to officially enter into the contest and go in the running to win the  prizes. Don't tag, not entered - Easy.

The sew-along finishes up on the 18th of September ( today), so  you will need to have your photos uploaded  to the Flickr group by  22nd Sunday (aest), but this is flexible so you are a little behind then yell out, we will work something out ;)

Myself and some other very helpful elves will be choosing several favorites ( depending on how many entries roughly between 5-10)  from the Flickr group that will then be voted on by the sewing  public, that means you fine folk  out there.For the chance to win the cool  prizes. 

Voting will opened up here on the blog  around the 23/24th September and close on the  27/28th September (aest). Again this is flexible, i want everyone to have the opportunity to finish their Mae and enter the contest!

After all the votes are tallied up,  the  winners  will then be  announced in the following days thereafter, here on the blog.

And there you have it! Thanks again for all of you who followed along, I've had a blast and i think each sew-along is getting bigger and better each time.

Before i go here is another puppy photo for y'all, just cause they are so friggin cute!! I tell ya tho, its been an exhausting 5 days since they arrived, phew... So i apologize for any errors in any of the posts since last Friday, i have been functioning on on a couple hours of sleep each night and i am delirious.... these little critters just need lots of help in these early days, to get them on the right road to being strong and healthy :)
For those of you who are interested or even if you are in need of a adorable puppy fix, i am  posting A LOT  of photos on Instagram/bluegingerdoll  at the moment!!!! :)

 

  



Abby

xx