Facings & Yokes, Facings & Yokes, I've Got to Get Me Some Facings & Yokes

Whenever there is a design that is highly successful 

in a broad range of similar environments, 

it is apt to emerge again and again, independently - 

the phenomenon known in biology as convergent evolution.  

I call these designs 'good tricks.'

~ Daniel Dennett

Ah, blissful hours of sewing!  :)

These casual men's shirt patterns are pretty straightforward, but I thought I'd show you two 'good tricks' from my sewing yesterday.  

First, a trick that I learned from a blogging friend, for the facings.  The instructions say to iron on the interfacing and then finish the outer edges of the front facings:  

Instead, I place the un-sticky side of the interfacing on the right side of the fabric and stitch along the edge that is supposed to be finished.  

Then I flip it over along that (finished!) seam:  

Finally, iron on the interfacing - voila!  A very nicely finished outside edge!  :)

Next up, this Kwik Sew pattern showed me a nice way to deal with the yokes at the shoulder seams.  Usually I am directed to attach the front pieces of the shirt to the inside yoke, fold and press 5/8th inch strips on the outside yoke and then attach it to the front pieces of the shirt by top stitching.  

Truthfully, my level of precision doesn't always make this look as nice as I would like...  

But this pattern had me attach the front pieces of the shirt to BOTH yokes at the same time, by temporarily tucking the rest of the shirt inside - the way you'd make something that was reversible.  Here is a shot of the instructions:  

And here is a photo where I have the two yokes pinned to the front right side of the shirt:  

It's probably hard to make out exactly what is going on, but you definitely get the idea that the shirt is all tucked and folded away quite strangely...  And once you sew that shoulder seam and straighten the shirt out, it looks great!  

This is a simple idea that should work with any yoke - I'm going to use it all the time in the future, regardless of whether or not the pattern calls for it.  I like it a lot better than the way I am usually directed to attach yokes.  

If you can't make sense out of my explanation, just let me know and I'll try to do a more thorough photo essay.  

Well, enjoy your last day of 2013!  Tomorrow will be a New Year and my 300th post.  Two things to celebrate - with one possibly being a bit more momentous than the other...  ;)