 Hello, it's day two of the Sew Along for New Look 6, 7, 2, 8. Today we're going to be working a little bit on our neckband and achieving most like 75% of our midriff. So all of this here that is got all the gathering, we're going to get the bands, we're going to do some facing on the inside and a lot of work today. Without further ado, let's jump into it. We are going to be working on the neckband. So we have piece number five and the back piece is number six. You should have four of each of them, two interfaced and two un-interfaced. So here are all of those and then you should have everything marked as well. All these little dots that you need will really help as we go along here. All right, so interfacing is attached. We need to stitch the band together and we are working with the interfaced pieces at this point. So we have center front seams, which are these guys down here. And again, we are stitching these between the dots. So this gets pinned and sewn and then we take our shoulder seams and those get pinned and sewn as well. The shoulder seams are the one with the notches. And the little curve comes in toward the center. So when you flip it out, it makes one big curve. But we are going to be leaving the center back un-sewn. One thing I do want to point out is that when you match up these notches, I know in yesterday's video the notches weren't matching up and we were like, oh, it's fine. Or at least I was like, oh, it's fine. Today, if you are to match up the raw edges of the fabric, then the notches will not match up. But that's not what you're supposed to do at a shoulder seam. At a shoulder seam, you actually offset the raw edges on the sides because when you sew at your 5 eighths, that'll get you a perfectly accurate little seam going around. So do make sure that your notches match on these shoulder seams. We don't need to surge these. These are all going to be faced. And so all of the raw edges will be captured in there. Okay, so press your those seams open. And again, you have like a, I don't know, like a teardrop shape. We are going to be attaching this to our bodice. But as with a lot of the steps in this pattern, a bit counterintuitive. Okay, so once you get your bodice laid out, then the neck band actually is going to get sewn onto here like a band. So like this, that's the end goal for it to sit up and be visible on our top. So now I'll tuck this little part under to create like a faux seam allowance, I guess. And then come under here, flip this whole thing over, grab this, and this is the way that this gets sewn on, where the point is going actually up. Some of you might be going in and trying to do it this way, where the point is on the bottom, that is incorrect. Because at that point, you'd be flipping it up and then you'd want to turn it inside out. We're not doing that. We're actually creating a band, not a facing. So you come in here, match up your raw edges and match up the dots. So it's going to be kind of like at an angle. And again, we're pulling back the seam allowances on both pieces. So they match up. There's one dot. There's the other dot. So you're just feeling for your stitching, and then you can pin this in. Then you're going to sew around. This notates the shoulder seam, shoulder seams match up. If you have the long sleeve version, you're matching that up to the dart. And then you have this other little dot back here. So I'm just going in and doing the main parts. I'm doing all the dots and seams first. And then I'll go back in and fill in as necessary. We do have this raw edge here. There's actually a notch that matches up with the notch on the back. So put your pin in the seam allowance and then reach under here and grab your basting threads, your bobbin threads, and pull this up until those two things come together. There's my dot for the other shoulder. All right. And through here, this should be pretty much like a one-to-one situation. They should want to go together pretty easily through the front. It's only when you get up into the curvy parts where they're going to fight you a little bit. Okay. So just pin all the way through here. In this area, this is what I'm talking about. See how this looks a lot smaller than this? They do go in at the seam line. Again, you kind of have to trust the process. But if you rub your fingers through here, at the seam line, they come together. At the raw edge, they won't. And below the seam line, they won't. But at the seam line, they do. And that is literally all we care about. So I'm going to put, I don't know, two or three pins in here obviously to hold it in place. But also it will tell my brain when we get to this point in the sewing to stop, slow down, feel around, and make sure that this is all sitting like it should. Okay. So we have the left side done. And now we have to do the right side. All right. So I like to do this in two parts. I like to do one whole side coming from the shoulder seam down to the center front, breaking the stitching at that dot, and then picking the back up again, starting from here and coming up the other way. All right. We can breathe a baby sigh of relief here. We do want to double check our work. So lay your garment out flat. And see how all of your seams look. And then when you want to double check your shoulder as well, this was the part where it was really difficult to ease in. And you can see that even though where those little creases are, that's technically where there's a pucker in the seam allowance. But it's not in the garment. And when I go and press this all out, you will notice that that kind of just all smooths away. But it creates such a beautiful shape around your shoulder. Like it just hugs your shoulder. Okay. So that is our bodice for now. You can really start to see it taking shape, right? But we are going to move on. I think we don't understitch now, do we? Okay. So if you are doing the ties, let me talk you through the ties. I am not doing the ties because on my muslin, I just don't like them. I don't like this weight. I don't like this bulk. I just think it doesn't add anything. It doesn't actually tighten anything. They're literally sewn into the seam. So I'm omitting them. But it's easy enough to use them if you want. You're just going to sew them right sides together to make a tube. Turn that right side out. And then you tack it in to piece seven. So at this point, you should just have your ties sewn and pinned to the little angular edge of piece seven. So as we pick up together, your ties should be sandwiched in, both of them should be sandwiched into the seam if you're using the ties. If not, then we still stitch between the big dot and the little dot. Okay. That's going to be step 20. Step 22 is to take the midriff. You gather them first. So you are going to be gathering both the tops and the bottoms of the midriff pieces. Just putting in your gathering stitches the same exact way we did in yesterday's video for the bodice front and back all along here. And you are stopping and starting at the notch here, starting going all the way down and stopping at the dot. And then on the bottom portion, you're starting at this lower notch and you're stitching all the way to the small dot. Then those get sewn right sides together between the two dots. Okay. So for the midriff, I'm going to show you again on tissue because I think it'll be easier for you guys to understand. You'll be able to see the notches better. But you have a at this point, you have your upper band sewn here between the small dots. You have your gathering stitches on your midriff. Now you need to pull up the gathers on the midriff to match the upper band. And at this point, you can see if we line up all of our center fronts, which for the upper band is here midriff is here. And then in the lower band, it's actually in the middle of the piece. That's our center front here. Okay. So the upper band has one, two notches on the bottom as does the and the midriff has two on the top. So you're going to match, gather all of this, match this notch to this notch. Okay. And then the lower band has three notches, one, two, three notches. So that gets lined up with one, two, and three. Okay. So as you're looking at your pattern pieces, make sure that you don't get any of these things upside down. This is what's going to attach to the bodice. And it has a dot, well, it has a big dot, a notch, a small dot, and two notches. That is not at all what the lower part of the upper band has. Okay. So attach all of these together, as you would, right sides together, and then right sides together. And you'll have one piece that we are going to refer to as the midsection from here on out. All right. I've got my band and my midriff pen together for reference. This took about 15 minutes for me to get this whole thing gathered and have them all nice and even and pretty. So take your time with it. All right. But that's what she starts looking like. Pretty cute, huh? Okay. So take your midriff piece. Take your lower band, the center of the lower band gets matched up to the bottom of the midriff, and then pull up any more gathering stitches that you need in order to get this to fit. It should be pretty close at this point if you pulled them up along with the top part. But yeah, just get it fitted in there nice and snug. Okay. I've got the lower band pinned on. And again, for reference, this one probably took maybe 10 minutes for me to get fully pinned and distributed and all of that. Really take your time because this is like the central part of the whole garment, you know? All right. At this point, you should have gone through one entire bobbin. I told you you would need multiples. And you have this sort of like hot mess express of what we are going to be referring to now as the midsection. The midsection now gets attached to the lower bodice. They go in right sides together where this little point that has the seam allowance, not the one without, but the one with the seam allowance, goes into the bodice like so. And then you just match up all of the main points. Again, we are going to be here. I'll show you. We pin this. We have a notch here that gets matched up. And then we have gathering stitches from that notch to this notch. So those get pulled up. Who's sick of gathering? You can be honest. But I will say you guys did pick this pattern. I gave you choices. You picked this one. And then you lay the rest of it in. The side seam should have a dot that gets matched. You see the dot there? That's my side seam. And then we have this notch. And then all of this gets pulled up into that last notch. Then repeat for the other side that's left. This is what you have at this point. Again, a mess. Feel free to put on a movie and rip out all of this stuff. I'm going to do that after. After just because I'm losing light. It's dinner time, all this kind of stuff. So the next step is to attach this facing. So take your upper band facing and you are going to stitch between the small dots again, just like you did in step 20. And then you're going to go to your iron. You're going to press up the lower edge by half an inch. When I am pressing up an edge, I always double the amount that it's supposed to be pressed. In this case, we want it to be pressed up half an inch. So I'm going to mark at one inch. That way, when I get over to the iron and I fold this up to be pressed, if you just mark it the half inch line, you can't see the line that you just made. So if you double that, then your raw edge will meet up with that line and you will get your half inch that you were supposed to get all along. Okay, now you want to turn your bodice so that the bodice part is facing you and the mid-drip, the midsection part is facing down. Yes, exactly, biscuit. And then this gets placed like this. So you're sandwiching the bodice in between the two pieces. So you have the mid-drip on the bottom, your bodice in the middle, and then you're facing on top. If you attach some hem tape, when you go to fold this down, you can press it in place first and then stitch it down. And the hem tape will hold it all in place. See, whenever you do the hem tape, it's just all staying in place and it looks really beautiful. So you can just come in here now and stitch in the ditch like you normally would, and it should hold that in place and not shift around or anything. So you can see how it worked. It definitely held it in place. I caught the half-inch seam allowance under here the whole way. That's amazing. I've never been able to do that on the first pass before. Incredible. Okay, hem tape. Okay, so this is the outside of the garment, obviously. But on the inside, look how incredible the hem tape did with literally one pass. So the hem tape held it down, and then I was able to stitch in the ditch from the right side and caught the half-inch seam allowance the whole way. I am thrilled with how that little hack worked. I hope that you all gave it a go and it worked for you too.