Willow Sew-Along: Day 02

Today we’ll be sewing our darts and the side seams for the bodice of the tank & dress. If you missed our previous post about fitting and cutting, you can find it here.

Make sure that you have your dart point marked and the dart legs notched.

Fold the top right sides together matching the two dart leg notches. The fold line should cut through the dart point.

Stitch from the dart leg notches to the dart point. You can either leave a thread tail at the dart point and tie off the dart, or what I usually do is back tack about 3 stitches.

Press the dart take-up (this is the wedge that you took out of the garment by sewing the dart) down towards the hem. I like to press my darts over a tailors ham to avoid any weird bubbling at the dart point.

Now with right sides together, align the side and shoulder seams of the front and back bodice. Sew them together along the 1/2″ seam allowance.

I like to serge my seams before I press them, but if you don’t have a serger you can finish them by zig zag stitching over the edge on your machine or trimming the edges with pinking shears.

Once you have your seams finished as desired, press the seam allowances towards the back of the garment.

That’s it for today, up next will be attaching the skirt for the dress version. See you back here then!