Celestial Top details

I mentioned that I altered the construction of my Celestial top a bit to give it a cleaner finish on the inside. Here are some more details of how I did that.
 

First I opted to fully line the yoke section, rather than using facings. I am not a fan of facings for the most part. Either they flop around or you have to sew them down, usually in a way that is visible from the outside. I used my main body fabric, which is hand dyed indigo linen, to fully line my facing.



I under stitched the neckline to get a nice clean finish. This technique is one of my favorites and I think it really gives a great finish. Here is my process:

• Cut front and back lining pieces out of the same pattern pieces as the outer yoke. 
• Sew yoke pieces together at the shoulders and do the same for the lining pieces. 
• Press all of the shoulder seams open.
• Sew the Yoke to the Yoke lining at the neckline with right sides facing.
• Clip your seams.
• Press the lining away from the Yoke. 
• Stitch along the lining about 1/8" from the seam, smoothing the lining flat as you go around the circle of the neckline.

Ignore my dusty presser foot...



The under stitching process keeps the lining from rolling to the outside. You could use this same process if you opt for a facing as well.



You can see that when the yoke is turned and pressed it gives a nice, neat finish along the neckline.



The original pattern instructions have the sleeves attached with raw edges showing as well as the skirt or body of the top.



I was able to fully enclose all of these seams. After I finished my yoke I attached the body of the top to the outer yoke. Then I sewed on the sleeves, but only the outer portion. This was only tricky where they come to a point, but I was able to make it work. After that I turned the inside of the sleeves under at the under arm and tucked the rest of the inside sleeve under the yoke lining. I turned under my yoke lining and stitched everything down from the outside. I have not perfected turning things evenly, perhaps that is why I hate hemming, so it isn't perfectly even. However, I still prefer this method to raw edges showing.



You can see my top stitching as well as my under stitching here.



Let me know if you have any questions. I adore the Celestial Dress pattern and can't wait to make a dress version. My friend Gretchen who I originally sewed along with has made several versions of this pattern. Check out her dress with hand printed fabric here. She is such an inspiration. By the way, my mom dyed the fabrics for this top and gifted them to me. Aren't they fantastic?! Both are linen, the blue is indigo dyed and the yoke is ice dyed.