Saturday 20 February 2010

Lined yoke by machine

A few weeks ago, Joy asked me a question about the yoke finish on my daughter's blouse BWOF 9-2008-126.

I like the clean yoke finish, but I'm trying to wrap my brain around the technique. Do you sandwich the yoke, yoke lining and bodice; stitch bodice & yokes, twist the pieces, then stitch the shoulders? And by "twist", do you mean "turn inside out"?

I am sorry I have taken so long to answer, but thought my explanation would make more sense with photographs - which meant I had to make something else with a lined yoke.
Fortunately for me, in the interim, Liana commented, and described a better way to make a lined yoke by machine,

That's how I do shirt yokes too, except I learned to stitch the shoulder seams first since they are slightly bias, and the less handling the better. The lower yoke seam is almost always straight grain, so it can take more handling and pulling around before stitching.

I have taken photographs of my attempt at Liana's construction order.

First I sandwiched the fronts (with finished front plackets) between the yoke and lining, and stitched, then trimmed and pressed the seams towards the yoke.
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Next I pinned the back to the yoke, right sides together. For added security, you can stitch this seam.

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Now comes the only mildly tricky bit. Take the right side of the yoke lining, and pin it to the wrong side of the back at the yoke seam.

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The backs and fronts of the shirt are inside the yoke when you sew the seam.

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When you pull the yoke to the right side, the inside is cleanly finished.

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I like this method for speedy sewing of garments which I do not plan to topstitch at the yoke. If you are machine sewing from the outside, of course this fiddling about is not really necessary, but it does mean you will not have any problems with missing the lining when you topstitch.

6 comments:

KID, MD said...

Thanks for taking some pics for us!! I am definitely going to try this with my next lined yoke - which will be soon, since I'm planning an Easter shirt for ds.

Joy said...

Wonderful! Thanks so much for doing this pictorially. Now it makes sense to me and I will have beautifully finished yokes from now on.

Carol said...

Great idea to sew the shoulders first. I normally do it the other way and this makes so much sense! Thanks.

Gretchen the Household Deity said...

Very clever, thank you for the photos!

gwensews said...

I've made that "burrito" type yoke before. It's a great technique.

SewRuthie said...

Used this method for the first time today and it worked wonderfully.
Why do the pattern companies not show stuff like this in the instructions?