Sew Easy: #9, How to Make Your Waist Front

[Music] [Music] this is a lesson where we actually start sewing i think you can readily see the advantages of leaving your pattern pinned to your fabric until you are ready for sewing but not only protects your fabric but you can get a last-minute picture of the construction details before you remove the pattern the first thing we'll do is stay stitch the seams this term may be a new one to you but it means just what it says that we have a row of stitching that will make the threads of the fabric stay in place while we're constructing the garment and now one of the important things to remember is the direction of stitching and we'll stitch from the high point here at the shoulder down to the armhole line in case you don't remember the direction you can check it by running your fingers lightly along the slanted edge of the shoulder and you'll be able to see that more clearly if i use this coarse fabric run our fingers in the right direction the threads stay unruffled but if i run my fingers up in the other direction you'll find that the threads pull out and the seam stretches so we'll stitch from the high point down now one more caution if you do run this test remember to run your fingers down the edge of the fabric so lightly that they won't shift the threads before they're held in place by the stay stitching the first place will stay stitched is at the shoulder seam and we'll want to hold these threads along the seam line in place during our construction so we need to establish our seam line and we'll do that by using the seam guide that comes with your machine if you have marks along the bed of your machine such as this one then put the end of the guide along the mark that will indicate the width of seam of your pattern hold the guide in place and screw it down tight or if you don't have the marks on your bed of your machine then use the pattern put the needle down on the seam line and bring the guide up to the edge of your pattern and tighten it down if you don't have a seam guide and don't have marks on the plate of your machine you may want to put a strip of adhesive tape on the plate then establish the seam width with pencil mark now the seam guide is in place we're ready to stitch be sure that the upper thread is down and under and both threads are back of your presser foot then bring your fabric over the needle hole lower the needle into the cloth then the presser foot and now you'll notice that i have not allowed the fabric to quite hit the edge of my seam guide for i want my space stitching to be a thread or two outside the seam line keep the edges of your fabric clean by cutting off these long threads next stay stitch the neckline and we'll stitch from the high point down or in the direction of the grain you'll notice that we're using white thread so you'll be able to see the stitching lines better then you'll find that some fabric will stretch more than this cotton does and you'll wish to stay stitch the armhole too however if the armhole isn't stay stitched i have found that the sleeve sets in more smoothly next we need to transfer some markings through from the wrong side to the right and since our markings are as they should be and are very light you probably won't be able to see them so let me show you where they are with this black line of paper the center front and the placement for the buttonholes and then down at the lower edge the pleat we'll mark this line with a basting stitch which is the longest stitch we can make on our machine then to transfer the center front marking from the wrong side to the right side we'll stitch right down the marked line we'll transfer our buttonhole markings through with the same basting stitch we're not concerned at this point with the length of our stitch but it's the starting point of each buttonhole if you wanted your markings to show plainer on the right side change your bobbin to a contrasting thread then next we'll mark the pleat down at the bottom you'll notice always if you'll stop and get the thread take up at the highest point and pull your fabric back it will be much better then while our fabric is still flat we have one more place to stitch and that is up here at the corner for our pattern tells us to clip and we want to stitch around that corner with a smaller stitch than usual turn a square corner leave the needle down lift the presser foot turn your fabric so it's right angles to itself lower the presser foot and continue to sew now i don't need to worry about the corner raveling when i clip into it later we've done all we can now hold these units flat so we'll start shaping it and i want to show you my favorite way of putting in a dart put a pin through the lower line marking bring it up through the opposite line bring the two together return the pin through the back line to the front and hold it in place and repeat this with two other pins in order to have a smooth dart start stitching at the point lower your needle on that crosswise line just catching one thread and then take two or three stitches along that thread bring in a slip of paper lay right up against the needle and hold it along the marked line and stitch along the edge of your paper and then we'll tie these threads into a knot we'll tie the threads together here at the point of the dart and then cut them off next we'll go to the pleat my pattern tells me right here to fold along the solid line and bring the fold over to the broken line and the error also points out the direction so we can fold on this line and bring it over to the other marked line and pin it in place and then we'll hold that in place for the row of ease stitches and the ease stitch just a little longer stitch than our regular one this completes the stitching on this unit and now we're ready to press and we'll shape these darts over the tailor's ham these horizontal darts should be pressed down from the wrong side then we'll turn it over to the right side and finish pressing the next the pleat and with this pressing we will have gone as far as we can with this unit it'll be easy enough to lay it aside go to other house work or complete the other front unit next time we'll go to the back unit [Music]