Sewing Technique - Armhole Facings

Sewing Friends:

One of my students asked, “How do I sew my armhole facings on my sleeveless garments so that they don’t poke out in the back?”

Well, first of all, if you are trying to sew a one-piece (front and back together on one pattern piece) armhole facing, you will never get it to lay well in the back of a sleeveless garment.  It will always poke out because it is off-grain.  In other words, the back of the armhole facing pattern piece is a different grain than the back of the garment.  This is what causes it to poke out.

If you have an all-in-one front and back armhole facing pattern piece for a sleeveless garment, the best thing to do is throw that pattern piece away and draw your own two piece armhole facings that will fit into your garment perfectly.  This is very easy to do.

How To Make Your Own Armhole Facing Sewing Pattern Pieces

• To draw your own armhole facing sewing pattern pieces, lay the front bodice pattern piece of the garment down flat on a table. 
• Place some tracing paper over the armhole area of the garment pattern piece.
• Trace the outer edge of the shoulder for about 2-1/2 to 3 inches, down the armhole curve, and down the side seam for about 2-1/2 to 3 inches.
• Draw a grainline on the facing piece parallel to the grainline of the garment.
• Now, measure from your newly traced armhole edge in 2-1/2 to 3 inches in several places all along the armhole to create the armhole facing piece. 
• Connect your marks, cut out and label the front armhole pattern piece. 
• All your seam allowances are included on the facing pattern piece since you traced it from the garment pattern piece.
• Repeat this procedure for the back of the garment to create the back armhole facing pattern piece.

How To Sew Armhole Facings

• Cut interfacing to match the facings.
• Apply interfacing to the facings.
• Stitch the shoulder seams of the front and back armhole pieces 5/8 inch.
• Press open and trim to 1/4 inch.
• Finish the outside edges of the armhole facing with whatever techique you desire.  There are multiple ways to do this: serge, zigzag, bind or even face the facing with interfacing.
• Stitch the underarm seam of the facing 3/4 inch. 
• Sewing Tip:  Whenever you sew the underarm seam of the facing, stitch it 3/4 inch instead of 5/8 inch.  This makes the facing slightly smaller to fit inside the circle of the armhole and it lays much better. 
• The Sewing Rule to remember is:  The underneath layer is always slightly smaller than the outer layer. 
• Press the seam open. 
• Note:  I usually leave the full seam allowance underarm in case I have to let the garment out.
• Set your machine stitch for a short stitch (18-20 stitches per inch) or 1.5 on some machines. 
• Stitch the facing to the armhole at 5/8 inch.
• Note:  Since it is easier to stitch a curve at 3/8 inch instead of 5/8 inch, you can trim 1/4 inch off both the armhole and the facing prior to stitching and stitch the curve at 3/8 inch.  It is your choice.
• After stitching the armhole facing with short stitches, trim the remaining seam allowance to 1/8 inch.  (That’s why you used short stitches.)
• If you trim to 1/8 inch, you will have a smoother curve because you won’t have to clip anything.  Clipping creates angular curves.
• Now, with the 1/8 seam allowances laying toward the facing, understitch the facing with regular stitching.  You will be sewing through the facing and both 1/8 inch seam allowances. . .not the garment.
• Take this to the press table and press with the facing up setting the seam on the edge.  This is a nice, clean finish.
• If you feel you need to secure the facing to the garment, look under the facing at the underarm seam area.  You will see both the garment and the armhole facing seam allowances laying on top of each other. 
• Grab the two seam allowances holding them together and machine stitch the seam allowances only.  This will hold the facing to the garment so it doesn’t flip up. One side of the seam allowance is sufficient to hold it down.  You can also fuse the facing seam allowance to the garment seam allowance if preferred.

I hope you can see that you can use this technique to make a facing anywhere you want. 

Think about making outside facings, too.  Reverse the facing and bring it to the outside of the garment, too.  Add some trim or decorative stitching or change the shape of the outside edge of the facing for different effects.

Remember your sewing rules and use your imagination.  You are the designer.

You will love sewing armhole facings or any other kind of facing now that you know the technique. 

It just makes sense!

To Your Sewing Success,

Marian

Sewing Technique - Armhole Facings

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 10th, 2007 at 8:40 pm and is filed under Sewing Techniques. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.