Crepe Sew-Along #14: Neckline Facings

Believe it or not, ladies, we're getting close! I will getting the remainder of the sew-along posts up this week. Yahoo!

One thing to note: remember how we left an opening for the tie in the left side seam? I've found that it's a good idea to topstitch this opening so the seam allowances don't flip to the outside. I just did a simple 1/4" top stitch around the opening, indicated here by the yellow box:

Now we're going to do our neckline facings! Pin the front facing to the back facings, right sides together. They'll look kind of like this.

Stitch at the shoulder seams. Follow the purple arrows above!

Press open the shoulder seams and open out the facings. Finish the outside of the facings. I pinked mine.

Pin the facings to the neckline, right sides together.

Before you stitch the facings to the neckline, I recommend drawing in your stitching lines around the sweetheart neckline. It can be difficult to use your seamline guide on your machine around tricky curves like this, so I like to have a drawn-in guide.

Stitch your neckline facings all the way around. Trim, grade, and clip/notch your seam allowances. Clip into the points of your sweetheart neckline.

Turn the facings to the inside and press. Understitch your facings; I would recommend doing this by hand (see this post for a video on how to understitch facings by hand).

Here's what the back looks like.

And here's the inside. I'm going to hand stitch my armhole facings down to the underlining, because I've noticed that the tacking isn't keeping them from flipping out.

That's it for today. Next time: sewing your skirt and pockets!