Shift Dress Sew Along: Stay Stitching and Tracing Darts

Hooray! Today is the first day of sewing for the shift dress sew along! Let's get started, shall we?

Stay Stitching

Stay stitching is stitching along a single layer of fabric on a curved area, such as the neckline. It prevents the fabric from stretching as you're constructing the garment. We'll be stay stitching in 3 places. A few items to note:

• Stay stitching is done 1/8" from the edge of the seam allowance. So we'll be stitching at 1/2".
• Direction matters. Sew in the direction indicated in the diagrams below.
• If you make a mistake while stay stitching, don't rip it out. That will just stretch the fabric more.
• Unlike a basting stitch, this is a permanent stitch that will stay in your garment.

Tracing Darts

To transfer the darts, we'll be using wax tracing paper. The kind I'm using below comes from Joann's Fabrics. You want the waxy side to go onto the wrong side of your fabric, where you want the marks to show. By folding the paper in half, you can do both sides at once.

I find the wax paper from Joann's isn't very dark, so I use a ruler along with my tracing wheel and go over it a few times. There's a bit of a curve to the dart lines on the front bodice, so I used my french curve ruler.

When you're finished, you'll see dotted lines the color of your waxed paper that show you where to stitch your darts.

Now, repeat this process for the back darts. Also make sure you've clipped your notches as well as the top of the sleeve head.
Next up, we'll assemble our bodice front.

See the schedule, and grab a badge!