The Piper

Gwensews wrote That's a great technique. I'm interested in how you will get the piping around the point and the bottom of the shirt attached without any rippling when referring to how I do my curvy yokes. Here is the process of how I do the piping. It is my way and it might not be the right way or the way other folks do it.

I have custom made this piping. I cut the strips 2" wide on the bias, pressed it in half lengthwise, stuffed the cording in and stitched it closed with a piping foot. As I am stuffing in the cording, I press it close to the folded edge with a fingernail. I cut my piping back to 1/4" seam using a piping ruler.

I lay the piping around the curved edges pinning as I go. At sharp corners, I play with the piping, folding it into a V so the point of the yoke fits into the piping. I pin it carefully into place and baste it down.


Here is the wrong side where I formed the point for the center back. If necessary, I will do small basting stitches at the point to hold the piping securely in place.


The back is basted.


Here is the wrong side of the front yoke.


And the yokes are done and laid out. I will sew the shoulder seams on the yokes next and press them open.


I then work on the shirt by sewing the shoulder seams together wrong sides together. Yes, the seams are on the right side of the shirt as you can see in the next two photos.




I put the yoke onto the shirt matching in the following order:
*Shoulder seams at neck and sleeve.
*At shirt front
*Around the yokes
*Around the neck
I do a lot of hand smoothing and pinning and it looks like this when I am done.


The wrong side after I have pinned


All pinned and ready to sew.


I sew around the neckline with a 1/2" seam. This holds the top together and I don't loose the pins I put in. I learned that after having most of the pins fall out as I was sewing on the yokes.

Next I put on my piping foot (but I have used my zipper foot) and set the length to 3.0 and move the needle out 2 steps on my machine. I slide the piping into the piping foot with the line on it at the edge of the yoke. With the zipper foot, I put the edge of the zipper foot at the edge of the yokes. I sew slowly to keep the foot in position.


When I get to a point, I stop with the needle down.....


pivot and continue sewing.


Stitching on the inside.....


and the outside


And hung up ready for the button bands to be added.