Farrow Sew-Along: Assembling the Dress Front
Today we'll be forming the front of the Farrow. This is essentially the same steps as the back of the dress, but we're adding a few steps to form those front pockets. If you're using a relatively stable fabric or aren't worried about stretching you can skip these first steps. If, like us, you're using something that will tend to stretch on the bias like silk or rayon, you will likely want to take these extra precautions.
To begin we're going to fuse the angled seam lines like we did for the back of the dress. Again cut 2 strips of woven interfacing 1" wide. Fuse one along the top angled edge, and one along the pocket marking line as shown above.
Align the bodice front and skirt front along the angled seam with right sides facing as shown above.
Stitch along the seam line and finish the seam allowance if desired. Do not press this seam.
Align the edges of the pocket segment and baste the two layers together. This will help keep things in place while you stitch in your pockets.
Using chalk and a ruler, draw in the pocket placement lines marked on your pattern. This will help you stitch straighter lines than if you just marked the points.
I like to pop a few pins in at this point because you've got a lot of fabric going into your machine.
Stitch along the pocket placement lines as directed. It was so hard to get a photo of this step so I've traced them in over top in Illustrator for you to see.
If you flip the piece over so that the skirt is facing up, this is what it should look like.
Fold the pocket and skirt down towards the hem and press across the seam line. Baste all layers together at the center front and side seam. Repeat for the other side. Finish the two center front seams as you did for the back of the dress.
You can see above that I've topstitched along the pocket seam allowance, stopping where the pocket opening begins. To avoid having a stitching line that just stops and starts, and to provide extra strength because in structured fabrics like this I use my Farrow pockets all the time, I place a small bar tack from the stitching line to the seam line. I am not topstitching on the rayon sew-along dress.
Align the center fronts with right sides facing and stitch along the length of the front.
Press the center front seam open.
And that's that for assembling the front of your Farrow! Next up we sew the fronts and backs together.
