If you've been sewing any amount of time,
you will have come across the term under stitching.
And if you're like me,
when I first started you might've looked at it,
seen it on the pattern instructions there and just thought what's
under stitching.
I think I'll skip it.
It's fine.
We all do this as beginners.
We skip sewing steps mostly because we don't understand why we're
doing them.
So in this video,
I want to talk with you about what is under stitching,
how to do under stitching and show you the difference,
just that it makes so that you will hopefully not be
skipping these sort of steps anymore,
and you'll get much,
much more professional finishes in your garment.
Welcome back.
My lovely ladies and gents,
it is lovely to see your smiling faces here.
Again. If we are actually just meeting for the first time
welcome, my name is Evelyn Wood,
and I am the creator of VintageSewingSchool.com.
And around here,
we are doing everything vintage sewing skills for modern day sewing,
to help you improve your sewing and get better garment sewing,
I should say.
And one of the key things is garment construction and how
to put things together and the proper ways to sew things.
So last week's video.
I actually,
this one,
I talked about the term under stitching.
So in this video,
I went through the sort of points on this particular garment
that were not sewn very well and things that I thought
could be improved.
And that sort of showed you what you could do at
home. And one of the things was under stitching and I
was surprised by the amount of people that just come up
and asked what is the under stitching.
Yeah, I know.
I remember not knowing any of these things too.
And I used to skip them all the time and you
would get results.
That just don't look very good.
So let's talk about under stitching,
how to do it.
I'm going to show you a few examples.
Why, what it looks like with them without,
so you can really decide for yourself because I think that
is the most key thing.
When you understand what you're doing,
you, then don't skip these crucial steps that will really improve
your sewing.
And this is the one of the key ways you can
get really nice crisp finishes is by under stitching.
So first of all,
what is under stitching?
So under stitching is a stitch that you do along the
finishes, where two bits of fabric have been sewn together and
they are turned through.
You would understand one side of those.
So you,
this is not top stitching.
So top stitching you actually see from the or edge stitching
as well.
You see from the top of the garment.
So they could be top stitching or edge stitching.
That is what you see on the top of the garment.
And it usually would go through all of the layers under
stitching is you do not see it from the top layer
and you only see the stitching on the underside,
hence the under stitching.
That is what are under stitches.
Why do we use it?
So we use it to actually hold down.
It's usually used on areas like neck lines and facings front
openings, anywhere where there is facings or lining or something.
Like I said before,
where two layers of fabric are sewn and then they are
turned out and then you would need to sort of secure
it with either top stitching it stitching or under stitching under
stitching is usually my preferred way because it gives a nice
crisp, clean finish on the top.
And so it actually helps roll under that I'm facing.
So the facings in the lining stays on the underside and
the top side stays really nice and crisp and sharp.
And then you don't have those linings rolling out,
just like what was happening on the pink jacket.
As you can see,
it makes quite a difference.
And this is a really easy fix to do on this
and one that you can definitely do yourself and makes the
big difference to how that looks really nice and crisp and
sharp now.
So just by doing that under stitching alone,
made that front lapel area just looked so neat and crisp
and sharp just by under stitching.
It is incredible.
So I guess the big question is how do we actually
do this?
Well, let me show you,
First of all,
you need,
you will.
So your seam,
as you normally would.
So remember two pieces of fabric that have been folded out.
I'm going to show you on the straight piece because it
is way easier.
Of course.
So this is where we do the under stitching.
So this is my right side of my fabric.
This red is the lining that I'm using for example.
So what we want to do is actually stitch only on
the lining and the seam allowance.
And we want our top layer of fabric to remain only
like no stitching visible on here.
So all of your seam allowance you pulled towards and underneath
it sits underneath the lining,
all of it all layers.
And then what we want to do,
it helps to actually a very least finger press.
If you're just new and actual press is what you need
to make this a lot easier because you really need to
actually pull out that seam as you're doing it.
Because if it's a lapped over,
it will look homemade and not very nice at all.
So make sure it is perfectly pulled out.
And then we just want to basically edge stitch along the
lining, as close as we can catching the,
the seam allowance in underneath the entire way.
So I usually just go ahead.
And so,
but I know a lot of new Sowers actually find a
little bit more success with using a zipper foot.
So why would this help basically,
it just gives you a guide and you can use the
edge of the foot to help guide you in a straight
line along that edge,
because it can be tricky when you first start,
right? Always making sure that you're pulling these two seams out
and you're always checking that your seam allowance is actually towards
the lining and it's caught onto the lining side.
Nothing should be on our outer fabric at all.
When we're doing This,
Beautiful. So you always keep your stitching about two millimeters only
away from the actual edge.
That way when you fold it out like this,
look at this just naturally wants to hide this spacing,
this lining and our outer fabric.
We don't have any lining poking through.
We haven't even pressed it yet.
Look how good that looks Now,
obviously sewing on a straight line is quite easy.
And I recommend that it's how you practice sewing on curves,
which is what you're usually doing.
Say for example,
this is a,
a, you know,
a little mini neck line here is a bit more difficult
to actually,
so to make sure you get in all of the lining
caught underneath,
and it's actually even more important to do it on these
areas. So let me show you an example here on these
two, and these are cotton.
So these press up really nice and neat,
and I've cooked the curves and everything and made it really,
really well.
So even on this example,
you can see here I have,
this is unpressed,
unfilter pressed,
this is straight from the machine.
I've literally just turned it over and you can see the
difference here on the one that has under stitching and the
one that doesn't.
So the one with under stitching,
you can see it naturally just wants to roll over and
hide that red lining underneath.
It just makes it so easy.
And you can imagine then when you come to the eye
and just even finger pressing this down after finger pressing,
which you would do first makes it so easy.
It just naturally wants to fall into that shape for you
in a nice,
smooth, crisp line and curl under really neatly where the,
with no under stitching,
it's really hard.
You really have to manipulate and,
you know,
12 twist that fabric in your fingers to really push out
the seam and to make it sit right.
It's a lot of effort.
And then of course pressing is the final key.
It makes it really easy to press because being under stitched,
it just naturally rolls into position.
Whereas when it's not,
and a lot of people don't because we're skipping steps,
probably a beginner.
I used to do this.
You just smushed down the iron,
right? And you just kind of iron it as he is.
You don't even know that you're sort of supposed to actually
make this seem sit nice and have the lining sit down
underneath on the underside.
You just don't know these things.
That's. So by doing the under stitching,
it just does it for you.
It really does all the hard work.
If this kind of thing is really eye-opening for you.
I definitely would welcome you to come have a look at
VintageSewingSchool.com because we focus really on learning the skills that you
need like this,
that give you really professional,
looking at garments.
When you understand what you're doing,
you then can create clothing,
not just make stuff and not understand it,
but really create when you actually understand what you're doing.
So come and visit us at VintageSewingSchool.com.
So I am absolutely sure now that you will never,
ever consider skipping the step of under stitching again.
And when you see this written in a pattern,
that is what it means when you hear me or other
people in tutorials.
And they just say under stitch,
you know what you're supposed to do on that seam?
And you know,
now if you skip the step,
how much harder it's going to be for you,
because when you do that under stitching,
it just naturally wants to fold over.
And it makes everything else easier.
On top,
I say,
you know,
sewing is 70% preparation and doing the under stitching is like
preparing it for ironing.
It makes it so much easier when you don't skip all
these steps along the way.
So do like this video,
if you like it.
And let me know below,
are you an under stitcher or did you try and skip
this step a lot and maybe now have seen the light?
I would love to hear it and do share your stories
of maybe how you learned to understand the hard way as
a lot of us do in the process.
I'd love to read all your comments below because there is
always a wealth of information for all of us to learn
from. So thank you very much for watching and until next
time, bye.