Last project of 2007!

First, thank you for your words of comfort about the Butterick dress disaster. I'll keep the muslin and perhaps at a later date I'll fuss with the fit, but I'm planning to wear the sequined H&M dress tonight. I wore it earlier this month to my husband's work holiday party (at a cabaret club!), but we'll be with a completely different group of people on new years eve so I can get away with it!

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Do you ever see or think of an idea for a project, and once it's there, you just can't get it out of your head? It's there perched in the back of your mind, nudging you, loudly clearing it's throat "ahem!"... That's how I've felt ever since I read Sewing Diva Els' how-to on making a "stuffed" neckband.

A little backstory - a couple of years ago I purchased this Stella McCartney skirt (majorly on sale of course!). One of the things I love about it is the waistband, it feels like there is a fat piece of piping cord in there. I was thrilled when Els showed how to create a similar finish on a knit top.

I started with an older BWOF v-neck t-shirt pattern that I redrafted to be a scoopneck, and a knit fabric I bought last month at Stonemountain in Berkeley. I made a tube the same size as the neckline, stuffed it with fiberfill, sewed it on, and understitched. Easy, right? Yes... but I did learn a couple of things during the process:

1. Patience is a virtue here - To avoid getting a lumpy neckband, take your time stuffing the neckband with the fiberfill. Tear the fiberfill into the smallest possible pieces, put a few pieces in, push them into the tube, repeat. I used both a wooden spoon to push the fiberfill in and a chopstick to push and pull pieces around.

2. Use a large seam allowance on the neckband, I'd say, oh, 1.5 inches. You can always trim it after you've sewn it to the neckline. Why? Because if you use only 0.5 inch seam allowances like I did, the ugly raw edges will show from the right side of the garment, as above. You want the raw edges of the seam allowance fabric to wide enough curl under and be hidden on the wrong side. I remedied this by covering the ugly raw eges with another strip of my fashion fabric. But, I recommend you avoid having to do that in the first place.

Now, let me just tell you I love this top! It feels almost elegant to wear, and it looks a bit mod, doesn't it?