Shana and Emily Sew-A-Long day 3!

Hey hey there! How goes things? Sew a long going good for everyone so far? I hope so! remember you can find us and get a hold of us the easiest in our facebook group :)

Today we are going to work on that back collar and then getting the front and back pieces together! 

so take your back collar facing and lay it as seen below (right sides together)and pin it around matching up each notch.

Sew that on by sewing along the pinned edge and then iron the seam to the inside as seen below

Now you take the second back facing piece and lay it over the top lining up the edges

Sew it on and then press over the the edges as per the pattern just like we did yesterday.

Now take your front piece and open up the two facings so it lays flat 

Now take your back piece and unfold those facings as well and lay on top of your front - matching the seams- particularly the main fabric and facing that will be seen on the front seams.

Pin the front and back together

and this is how it looks pinned together from the back - just thought I'd show it from both sides !

Stitch the shoulder seams (what we just pinned) and then make a snip on your main fabric before the collar bits on both sides- but do NOT snip through your seams! (it looks like I cut over the stitching - but that is because I was trying to hold the scissors and shirt and camera and I am not so coordinated)

Now zig-zag finish your main fabric seams - do NOT zig zag over onto your collar. Below you can also see my zig-zag settings. I don't change them from normal just switch to zig-zag and this is what it gives me.

Now press open your collar seams on the inside, you can see below I am finger pressing them open. 

Now all that ironing over you did yesterday and today with folding over a bit on the inside facing will come in handy! This step is easy, but a bit time consuming. Fold over to the inside your inside collar facing and line it up to the stitching edge as you can see below and pin it good! pin it real good :)

Once you have done that for the entire facing - front and back take it over to your machine and turn it right side out and slowly topstitch the edge! 

This is why pinning it to the stitching line is so important - if you are very careful in this step you should catch the inside facing all as you topstitch. If you missed some you can go back and unpick those seams and  re-align and re-sew or you can very carefully hand stitch any places where you didn't catch the facing in the stitching.

ok everyone - that wraps up day 3! The hardest part is over with :) How is everything going? Do you love it so far? Any questions/comments/concerns? Find us on facebook!