Simplicity Pattern 1809

[the_professors_assistantKeymaster]

I am a beginner sewer & I picked up this pattern because it looked easy, but for the life of me I can;t figure out how to do the yoke & inset. Can you please help?

[the_professors_assistantKeymaster]

ok, cool. So step one they just want you to do two sets of basting stitches between the notches on the front of the dress.  Don’t do any backstitching on these stitches.  Step two, take your front inset piece and fold it in half.  Make sure that the right side of the fabric is on the outside as you’re folding.  When this is folded, the two notches and edges should line up.  Baste this piece all the way around the curved edge.  Press the fold so it’s nice and crisp.  If you want to add lace, cut a piece that’s the length of the fold, pin it so the edge of the lace meets the fold and then just stitch in place.  Step 3, take this inset now and turn it upside down so that the notches are going up.  These notches now are going to be matched to the same notches on the front of your dress (on the right side), on what looks like a neckline.  (This part may seem confusing because looking at it each curve is going in a different direction but you just have to mold each piece to fit.)   Now this area on the dress is going to be larger than the inset area between the notches.  So you need to pull the top basting threads on the dress to gather the area and when it fits the inset pin them together so the notches are lined up.  Make sure you distribute the gather in this area evenly so it doesn’t look lopsided.  Then go ahead and pin the rest of the inset to the curved area of the neckline.  You should also match up the dots that should have been transferred from your pattern pieces.  So now the inset is pinned from one end to the other.  Once this area is all pinned, go ahead and baste into place.  Once its basted you can flip the inset up so the folded part of the inset is now the top of the dress.  Step 4, Take your yoke pieces.  You should have two and on each one, there’s one curved edge with a notch on it.  This curved, notched edge, is going to be stitched to the curved notched edge at the top side of the dress (which looks like armholes).  Pin them to the dress with right sides together.  You know you’re putting the right yoke on the right side because the notch will match and the dot on the edge will match.  Stitch each yoke into place and press the yoke out, away from the dress.  In this case the seam allowance is not pressed open but pressed closed and should be pressed up so it lies under each yoke. Does that help at all?  Let me know if you need more clarification.

[the_professors_assistantKeymaster]

Just want to add:  Try to only understand and do one step at a time.  If you look over all the directions and try and understand everything, it’ll just leave you feeling overwhelmed and frustrated.  If you just take one thing at a time, it makes things a lot easier and there will be progress.  I want to see a picture when you finish, because I know you can do it! 🙂

[the_professors_assistantKeymaster]

I am also having difficulty with the yoke and interfacings of this pattern. Step 4 (for the dress) ends saying “stitch, making sure to keep inset seam free”. I wasn’t sure what this meant and when I put the facing on (steps 11-13), the fabric bunched up right where the yoke and insert meet- the dot in figure 4. Can you explain what they mean by keeping the “inset seam free” and tips for how to neatly turn the facing at that point?
thank you

[the_professors_assistantKeymaster]

Hi Janie,
So the inset is the half circle piece that is stitched to the middle of your front piece in step 3. When you sew your side sections to the front in step four, they’re just telling you to make sure that the seam you made in step three doesn’t get caught in your new seam. If you maybe press the seam from the inset towards the center than you probably won’t have to worry about it when you’re making your seams in step four. Whenever you have curved seams, make sure you click notches into the seam allowance (just don’t cut into your stitches) and you can also trim the seam allowance so it’s smaller. It should lie a little flatter after that. If you don’t, it will tend to bunch up because you’re trying to fit your seam allowance fabric in a smaller area. Hope this helps and I’d love to see a picture when you finish. 🙂

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