I finally had a stretch of time to sew today. My challenge was inserting a man's shirt sleeve into the actual shirt using a flat-felled seam. I decided not to use my new flat-felled foot. I reseached this process, and sometimes people adjust seam allowances. I cut out this shirt before the research. Therefore, I wasn't able to make any seam adjustments, so I just used the usual 5/8" seam allowance.
I proceeded by inserting the sleeves in the usual way. That is, right sides together shirring the sleeve and easing the cap into the sleeve, pucker-free, before sewing the side seams of the shirt or the sleeve. This was easy, since there really wasn't much ease to deal with.
The flat-felled process is:
~ pressing the seam towards the sleeve
~ trimmed the bottom seam allowance in half
~ folding the top seam allowance in half
~ enclosing the half seam into the whole seam allowance
~ top stitching on the right side.
The real look of the flat-felled seam is on the inside.
Next I worked the side seams. It's the same process as above except I sewed the side seams wrong sides together. The flat-felled seam is right side out.
This is how it usually looks.
Before stopping for the day, I wanted to hem the shirt. When making a narrow hem, I sew two rows of basting stitches 1/4 inch apart. I press the fabric on the first basting line, then I press again on the second basting line, then pin. Using my edging foot, I sewed the hem.
A decorative touch is adding my DS's name on the bottom of the front band.
