Finishing a sleeveless dress (facing or lining)

During the long time I've been sewing I've used several ways for finishing a sleeveless dress. There are methods where you don't sew the center back or the side seams until the facing/lining is done. Which not always works as I'd like to, as it doesn't give you much opportunity for fitting while sewing. Which is what I (and a lot of you too I think) often do. At least for finetuning in the final fabric. The method I describe here requires the shoulderseams to be left open. And as it's a method for a sleeveless dress (or top), that's only a small seam to baste for fitting purposes. I like the fact that you can sew in the zipper too, if required, before sewing the facing/lining to the dress. Or use a pattern without a center back seam. 

I'm sharing this method with the regular disclaimer that this is what works for me. I'm not claiming this is the perfect method. In the steps below I refer to the facing, because that is what you see in my photos. It would be no problem if the lining was attached to the facing or if you use lining only. It's a lot of steps in the way I describe it here, but it's not overly complicated. Give it a try and let me know how it worked!

Step 1 

Sew the dress without sewing the shoulder seams

Step 2

Sew the facing without sewing the shoulder seams. Usually this will mean sewing the side seams of the front and back facing. My dress has a center back zipper, which was installed first and there are 2 back facing parts. If the dress has no center back seam, the facing for the back can be one part.

Step 3

Baste/pin the facing to the dress.

Step 4

Sew the facing to the dress, do not stitch to the end of the seam, leave about 3cm/1.5 inch open.

Trim and clip the seams where necessary. Again not to the end of the seam.

Step 5

Turn, press and edgestitch on the facing. How far you can do the edgestitching depends on the width of the shoulder, but do not stitch till the point where you stopped the seamstitch. Stop a little before that point.

Step 6

Fold away the facing and pin and sew the shoulder seams of the garment. 

Step 7

Pull the shoulder seam inside out.

Step 8

This is the most fiddly step, pin and sew the shoulder seams of the facing.

Step 9

Pull on the seams and match the shoulder seams from the garment and the facing. 

Pin the neckline and armhole side. Sew and make sure you start and end at the previous stitching lines. This is easier to sew when the seam is still wider, therefor it was not trimmed in the earlier step.

Step 10

Trim the seam, I trim the corners too to remove as much bulk as possible.

Step 11

Turn back the facing by pulling on it. Press the shoulder seam and you're done!

Sewing the elastic to the band

In the lingerie sew-along I orgnized a few years ago I’ve published this post on how I sew the elastic to the band. I’m re-posting it here for general information. I’ll try to gather a bit of those posts as a conclusion to my lingerie sewing month.

One of the most common problems in bra making is the rolling/flipping of the elastic to the inside. This is often caused because the elastic is sewn too low on the band. In one of the classes I took it was told that the maximum height of the band under the cup is 1.25 cm (0,5 inch). It was said that in a lingerie sewing contest  this was one of the things that got extra attention.
This is the way in which I sew the underband. It’s specially made as a tutorial, so only a partial bra is shown and non-matching colors are used for all parts.

	Sew cups in the underband.
	Sew the elastic to the  underband, pluche side up and picots pointing to the cup.
	On the inside, sew the chanelling to the cup, on the very edge, almost onto the seam where you sewed the cup to the underband.
	Turn the elastic and topstitch it with a triple zigzag.
	The elastic attached.
	The inside at this point.
	Now topstitch the chanelling twice. Once close to the seam, once on the outer edge of the chanelling. After many bra's, this is still the most difficult part for me, sometimes I have to take it out because it shifts on the inside, and I won't get the wire through.
	Finished on the inside.

Tutorials–Pinterest

A little while ago I announced on the Sewing tutorials blog that I have stopped updating that site and will eventually take it down. I have realised though that I will miss some of those tutorials myself as well and want to keep a few links. So I started to use my Pinterest account more and started saving the links there, including a few links to my own tutorials (how vain).

For those interested I added a link to my Pinterest account on the sidebar. It’s a personal selection, I’m not trying to be complete in any way and will add to it occassionally. It’s quite a bit easier to do than the format I have on the blog, which might make for adding pins regularly.

Link to tutorials in sidebar

I love sewing tutorials. I like to make them and I like to read tutorials by others. In Dutch there is a saying "there are more ways that lead to Rome", and that is certainly true for sewing. For a lot of techniques there are more ways to do it. And it often depends on personal preference and experience with a technique what you prefer.

On my blog I try to share the (limited, not professional) knowledge I have on a few subjects. To find sewing information more easily I am trying to make a list of sewing tutorials that can be found on the internet. For a first test I've collected a number of links in my sidebar in a dropdown menu. As you can see already, there are a few subjects covered more than once (more ways to Rome!).

On my new laptop with Windows Vista I implemented this and had problems with the widget, the links didn't always work. On the computer I'm working on now, with Windows XP and both Internet Explorer and Firefox, it seems to work fine. Could you let me know your experiences whether the links work for you?

And there are so many tutorials I know of, but can not find immediately. If you have or know a tutorial that is worth a link, let me know, I'll be happy to add it.

And last: I think it might be good to divide this in a couple of categories. For example Zippers, Lining, Shirts, Skirts, Pants. What categories would you suggest?

Lots of questions. Let me know what you think!

PS: There are new links on top op my blog to my pdf-tutorials, both in Dutch and English and my photoalbum.

Collar with stand - tutorial / Kraag met staander - uitleg

English Nederlands


As promised I've written a tutorial for a collar with stand, in the way it is described in David Page Coffin's book Shirt making. The main difference in construction from all methods I've seen is that you first attach the stand, and then the collar.
As it's become a very picture-heavy tutorial (more than 20 pictures), I made a pdf file for this that you can use. You can find the file here.
I will also try to upload the pictures to a public album, so that these can be viewed. It just takes to much time to upload it all to blogger again.


De kraag met staander op mijn bloes heb ik gemaakt met behulp van het boek Shirt Making van David Page Coffin. Het belangrijkste verschil met andere methoden is dat je de staander eerst aanzet, en daarna pas de kraag.
Deze methode heb ik uitgelegd in een pdf-bestand, dat je hier kunt vinden. Ik zal proberen de foto's ook in een openbaar webalbum te plaatsen, zodat je ze beter kunt zien. Het kost me gewoon teveel tijd om dit nu ook weer in blogger te plaatsen.
Het bestand is nu nog alleen in het Engels, mochten er onder jullie zijn die het graag in het Nederlands zouden hebben, laat het me dan weten.

Making a bra - 5 (finishing)

Edited to add: I've made a pdf file for these instructions. You can find it here.

Before adding the shoulderstrap, you should measure your closing at center back. The shoulderstrap should be within the closing. In the picture I've marked it with the line. So I needed to trim it a little bit. When your hook and eye closure is wider than the back, you pin your shoulderstrap a bit out of the fabric.



Cut your shoulderstraps in half. Don't cut a separate piece for the back, leave it as one part.
Pin the shoulderband to the back and stitch it with your widest zigzag.



Trim the fabric on the inside.


Take the ring and pin it. Sew with a narrow zigzag and very close stitches. I made two rows of zigzag stitches, to make it more secure.


Cut off the shoulderstrap, you now have the strap that you will attach to the cup.

In the same way, with small zigzag stitches, attach the shoulderstrap to the slider.


Slide the shoulderstrap through the ring, from the back to the front, and then through the slider.


Pin it to the cup


Stitch, again using small zigzag stitches.


Close the wire casing on both sides with narrow zigzag stitches too, and cut off the extra length that is sticking out still.

The bra is finished, add a ribbon decoration if you like.



I really hope that this tutorial is helpful to some of you. Any comments are welcome. I tried hard to have all the English bra vocabulary correct by searching these on the internet, but please let me know in the comments or by e-mail if I have made a (stupid) mistake or if I could make it clearer by using another word.

Making a bra - 4

Edited to add: I've made a pdf file for these instructions. You can find it here.

In my last post, the bra was getting shape. Now it comes to finishing it. This is the part that takes the most time.

Wire casing/chanellingThe bra I'm making has wires. For that you need wire casing. You measure the size of the rounding of your cup (seamline!) and cut 1 cm extra for seam allowance and on both sides some extra length. On the picture below you see my wire casing, on the right the extra 1cm seam allowance is measured. This side goes under your arm. The other side is center front.
Wires are usually 2 cm shorter then the rounding of your cup (you have to stitch above them later to ensure they don't move out of the casing.



Pinning wire casing
Pin the wire casing on the stitched line of the cup. In my bra the wire casing is folded outward, so the seam allowance is folded under the casing like the picture. It could be the other way when your pattern folds the channelling towards the cup.


Stitch the wire casing on the edge, very close to the seamline of cup and band.


Don't stitch the last two centimeters of the wire casing under the arm. The elastic has to be folded on this part


Casing in the picture below is stitched.Just let the extra length attached for this moment. Certainly in center front my experience is that it is best to trim it later, as the topstitching still has to be done.


Measure elasticCut the length of the elastic for bottom and upper part of band and cup. Either mark the points with pins or with a erasable marker. The length is usually the length of the pattern parts -20%. but there are women who find this too much and take 15% off.

Pin elastic to underside of band and center frontI use a ironing ham to keep the lycra stretched while I pin. But an extra pair of hands works too. Another method is stitching the beginning stitched, and keep the needle down in the elastic and pin from there.

Sew the elastic with a zigzag stitch, trim the seam allowance, turn and topstitch with a multiple zigzag.


Important on sewing a bra is reducing bulk. In the following picture I have cut away a small part of the seam allowance of the seam of band and cup.


Now trim the seam allowance of the wire casing, and pin the wire casing from the front. Then edgestitch on the side of the cup, and then topstitch approx. 0,5 cm from the edgestitching. Be aware that in the space between edge- and topstitch the wire is added. So don't make it to narrow. This is tricky, even after making a lot of bra's, I regularly find myself ripping out the outer topstitching, because my wire won't pass :-(


Add the wires to the wire casing.


All that is left to do is adding hook and eye closing and the shoulderstraps.

Link to part 5

Making a bra - 3

Edited to add: I've made a pdf file for these instructions. You can find it here.

The next part of my tutorial of making a bra. Meanwhile I'm thinking of my next garment to make, other then lingerie. Difficult choice, but I would like something with a bit of a challenge. On the other hand, I need some capris or shorts for the summer. Well, that's for next week.

Making the cups of the bra.

Sew narrow elastic with a zigzag stitch to the scalopped edge of the lace. The elastic should be approximately 10% shorter then the seam. This also applies when you use non-stretch elastic. This narrow elastic will make sure that the cup lies to your breast properly.
Of course there is a difference in using stretch or non-stretch lace. If your lace has a lot of stretch, it will more easily take shape. I find it a matter of personal preference but have used both kind of lace. I tend to add 0,5 cm to the length of the upper cup when using non-stretch lace.


Sew upper and lower cup together with the 1 cm seam allowance.


Topstitch from the right side, using your fingers to mould the seam and make sure that the seam allowances stay in place. Like before, I use my blindstitch foot for this.
In a fabric combination as this, I fold both seam allowances to the lower cup. When your upper cup is lycra too, or stable lace, then you open the seam allowances and topstitch on both sides of the seam.


Now you trim the seam allowance on the inside very near the topstitching. This will give your cup a smooth curve.


The cup is now finished




Sew the cup to the center front and band with 1 cm seam allowance. If you have a pucker, like I had in this picture, open up a few stitches and make sure everything is inserted neatly. A few wrinkles that you can easily flatten with your fingers is normal, and nothing to worry about. In my picture you see that at the bottom of the cup, where the center front piece and band meet.


The bra is getting shape.



Link to part 4