Today's sewing adventures got off to a rough start: I wasted 2.5 hours bungling around doing the neckband wrong! I accidentally pinned the neckband to the neckline of the shirt upside down, so the slightly-shorter side was lined up with the neckline, and the longer side was away from it. Not realizing my mistake, I was puzzled because the neckband seemed too short. Assuming a)I had done something wrong earlier, or b)the pattern was just plain wrong, I cut out a new pattern piece the correct length, cut a new neckband, facing, and interfacing, and started over. I pinned and sewed the neckband in place, and was ironing 3/8" under on the notched edge of the facing when I suddenly realized there was a dot marked on the neckband pattern piece which I had completely overlooked. Had I paid attention to it, I would have matched it to the shoulder seam, and would have seen the neckband was upside down.
So I ripped that seam, pinned and sewed the original neckband piece in place (with some difficulty, because I had already trimmed the neckline part and had to guess a little bit when I put the pieces together), only to discover I didn't have the right sides of the fabric together! The neckband was the wrong side out. Right about then I considered dumping the whole thing in the trash. But I ripped that seam out, ironed the pieces, took a walk, and tackled it again.
Here is the original neckband facing with the fusible facing attached.
The neckband is stitched in place and pressed away from the shirt.
Now the facing (with interfacing attached) is pinned to the neckband. In retrospect, I think I was supposed to have affixed the fusible interfacing to the neckband, not the facing. But, since they look identical, it really doesn't matter.
Finally, the facing has been sewn to the neckband, turned, and is ready to stitch in place. I intend to hand sew it first, because it would be too likely to bunch up with the machine.
Tomorrow I plan to babysit my granddaughter, and I have other plans on Thursday, so it may be Friday before I resume working on this project. Stay tuned!
