The Stella sew-along #3 - Assemble the bodice

 

And we're back for the third post in the Stella sew- along. I hope you found yesterdays post helpful with any fitting you may have had with the pattern or even just picked up some new pattern adjustment tricks for you sewing bag? If you need a recap you can find yesterdays post, here.

Today's sew-along post we are getting into the juicy stuff and we will be beginning to sew up our Stella blouses.

So lets get started because we have a lot to cover!


STAY STITCHING

1. On the right side of blouse, stay stitch the front (1) bodice and both  back bodice (2) necklines, 0.5'' away from the edge.

FRONT BODICE DARTS

1. On the wrong side of the fabric, create both the bust darts on the front bodice (1) by folding the fabric together along the marked lines. Pin in place.
2. Stitch along these marked lines, from the top of the dart to the bottom of the dart.
3. Press the darts downwards, toward the bodice hem.

FRONT BODICE WAIST DARTS

1. On the wrong side of the fabric, create both the front bodice (1) waist darts  by folding the fabric together along the marked lines. Pin in place.
2. Stitch along these marked lines, from the top of the dart to the bottom of the dart.
3. Press the darts towards the bodice centre front.

BACK BODICE DARTS

1. On the wrong side of the fabric, create both the back bodice (2) darts  by folding the fabric together along the marked lines. Pin in place.
2. Stitch along these marked lines, from the top of the dart to the bottom of the dart.
3. Press the darts towards the bodice centre back.
*The same process applies to the back darts as the front darts, folding the darts the darts along the marked lines and pinning in place following the shape of the darts. See above photo of how to do this with front darts.

BODICE SHOULDER SEAMS

1. Right sides together, stitch the front bodice (1) to the back bodice (2) pieces at the shoulder seams.
2. Finish seams and press seams open.

BODICE SIDE SEAMS

1. Right sides together, stitch the front bodice (1) to the back bodice (2) pieces at the side seams.
2. Finish seams and press.

 

INSERT AN INVISIBLE ZIPPER

You are ready you can go ahead and insert your invisible zipper, following along with this tutorial, here. There are also a heap of other tutorials out there on the inter web as well, but this tutorial is the process the pattern adheres to.






BODICE CENTRE BACK SEAM

Once you have inserted your invisible zipper, then you can stitch up the bodice centre back seam, but this process is also included in the invisible zipper tutorial, here.

 

The final step for this sew-along post! Let's stitch up our bodice hems.

BODICE HEM

1. Fold up 1/2' on the bodice hem edge to the inside of the blouse and press it down.
2. Fold up this hem edge again, 1'' and stitch in place to form the hem.
3. Give the hem a good press with a warm iron and you're done!

 

I know this is quite a big post but all the steps are quite small and don't take that long to do. I have included all these steps into the one post to get the bodice ready for the facings, sleeves ( if you are completing View A)  and also so we can get started on our pockets ( the fun part!). I have confidence that you could finish all these steps with your Stella bodice in one sewing sitting :) If not feel free to break it up into smaller increments, i'm a big fan of sewing in 10-15 mins blocks when i can, instead of freaking out and trying to sew a project in one huge block!

Catch you peeps tomorrow!

Abby
x

MAE SEW-ALONG #3 - Apply fusible interfacing, stay stitching & bodice darts

Hello again fine sew-alongers! Today's blog post we will be starting the prep work we need to do to get our Mae blouse's on the road to being stitched up. Before we start just to recap, by now you should have  sorted out any alterations/sizing adjustments you may need to have made, cut out your interfacing and fabric and be well and truly be ready to get started. 

As i said,  today's blog post is all about the prep work of the blouse, which means we will be attaching our fusible interfacing to our facing pattern pieces, stay stitching the neckline and lastly stitching up the darts on the front and back bodice pieces.

OK, lets get started:

Step 1: Apply lightweight fusible interfacing to your facing pieces.

Grab your facing pieces and apply the lightweight fusible interfacing to the wrong side of the front neck facing ( 4), back neck facing (3) and armhole sleeve facings (5) following the manufacturer's instructions apply your interfacing.

Step 2: Stay stitching

What is staystitching?

  Staystitching around curved edges especially necklines helps prevent them from stretching out, making them easier to match up later.  You simply machine stitch along the edge of the neckline.

1. Stay stitch 0.5'' away from the front and back bodice necklines edges.Take your time and go slowly around the scallop curves and pivot at the scallop points.

Step 3 : Front and back bodice darts 

1. On the wrong side of the fabric, create the darts on the front bodice (2). Match the marked dart lines  together to form a fold .Pin in place  from the top of the darts to the bottom of the dart .

2. Beginning at the top of the dart, stitch along the marked line down to the bottom of the dart. 3. Repeat the same process on the darts on the back bodice pieces (1).  

Below is a finished look at what the  bodice darts, front and back should look like once you're done. 

Lastly press the front bodice darts towards the centre of the bodice and do the same for the back bodice darts. 

Next up we will be sewing up the bodice shoulder seams and finishing off the bodice back edges.

Remember this is your sew-along, so if you have any questions would like to see something shown in the sew-along that i may have missed, then just yell out!!

Abby

xxx