Sew waistband - phus phus skirt

Hi All,

This tutorial is part of phus phus skirt. For all the steps please go phus phus steps.
Let us now sew the waistband.

 1. The waistband with no interfacing (back of skirt) now needs to be turned under (wrong sides facing each other).

You could do this step when you are ironing the waistband half way but since my cutting & sewing is not perfect I prefer to do it now (measuring now). If your cutting is neat then you could do it at step 1 before gathering and it will look like this.

 2. I prefer to measure and then turn under and pin it. Measure it so it is at least 0.3-0.4cm more than the elastic. I'm doing here 3.4 cm.

 3. Now sew so that it just about (again just about) covers the stitching beneath.

The back looks like this

 4. Now stitch on top of the waistband (only on the back of the skirt). We haven't yet started the front. Just catch the fabric that's it.

 5. Set machine to zig zag stitch to do the ends of the elastic.

 6. Attach a safety pin to one end of the elastic.

.

 7. Insert elastic through the front waistband opening.

 8. See that one cm is peeking out on both ends and pin the elastic at the seam.

9. Set machine to normal stitch.

 10. Sew the elastic where you have pinned it that is at the seam (just where both the seams meet)

 11. We will need to do 2-3 stitch lines back and forth here because there is lot of stress here. So with needle down raise the foot.

 12. Turn the fabric other side. Sew and back stitch. I stitched 2 times, you could do 3.

 13. This is how it looks. Because it is between the seams it is hardly visible.

 14. This is how the elastic now looks .Neat but we will make it neater :)

 15. Remember to remove the safety pin. :)

16. Now we need to pin to even out the gathers on the elastic
a. Eyeball or fold in half middle of elastic (or back of skirt) and adjust the gathers on the elastic to pin against where we have the center marking on skirt.(this is already marked)
b. Do the same at 2 quarter points on the skirt marking as well.

  17. Now the trick like we followed twisted elastic - fixed. This is all only on the back remember. In the middle of the waistband now start at one side seam, back stitch.

 18. Now sew by pulling the fabric with elastic so it is fully straight sew in the middle. You cannot see my left hand here as I used it for clicking but use your left hold the fabric behind the foot. :). The 2 hands are pulling the waistband against each other at the foot.

 19.Neat finish. Do you agree?

 20. Now we will finish the front waistband. Turn over wrong sides together for same length as back waistband you folded under (3.4) cm for me and sew over.

 21. Done.

22. This is how the inside looks.
Thanks,
Preethi.

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