January Sew-Along Update I

Here's an update on my January Sew-Along project. In case you missed what I was working on this month, or wanted a recap you find the first post here.   

1. The first step was to cut out all of my pattern pieces. I looked through the instructions and figured out which pieces I would need for shirt C. Then I cut them out of the tissue paper. Then I folded the edges down to the size that I was making (I like the keep all sizes of a pattern in case I need to use it again from someone else), and ironed them out. That's right, I iron my pattern pieces. They tend to get all wrinkled in the envelope and that can mess you up when you are cutting your pieces out. 

2. I ironed my fabric (both colours) and laid it out on the floor. I like to cut things out in the living room because there is more space than in my sewing room.

3. I pinned the bodice pieces onto the red fabric, making sure that they were on the straight of grain. That means that they line up with the grain of the fabric (the direction it was woven in) so that the pieces won't pull/stretch when the garment is complete. I like to use straight pins with no heads when I am cutting out pattern pieces. It makes it less likely for me to accidentally catch a pin in my scissors, which would make them have a bur and mean that they would have to e sharpened. 

4. I repeated step #3 with the pattern pieces I was cutting out of the yellow fabric. Most of the tine I only use one colour of fabric so I only have to do step #3 once.

(I only needed to cut one of this piece that is why the fabric isn't folded over in this picture, in case you were wondering.)

5. Here are all of the pieces laid out after they were cut out. Next I went into the sewing room and marked all of my notches and darts. This is a pretty time consuming process and my probably my least favourite part of sewing. Sadly it is necessary or else you won't know what piece lines up where and what size to make darts/tucks etc. I also cut out the interfacing pieces and applied them to the fabric. Then I surged around the edges of the pieces with my serger. 

6. Once the pieces had been serged, I consulted the instructions and sewed the darts on the front and back of the bodice. 

7. Last but not least I sewed the shoulder seams together, and placed the partially constructed bodice onto my manequin.

That's as far as I have gotten for now. I have a little more time this week to work on this project so I might move ahead and post another update next week. I haven't decided if I should do another one or wait until the "big reveal" so to speak. Since this is a sew-along project though I think it makes the most sense to do another progress post with some more steps.