Attaching the Canvas to the Outer

Before we can attach the canvas unit to the outer fabric, we must sew the front vertical dart if there is one.

Once the dart is sewn, trim it to 3/8", stopping 1" down from the point.

Press the dart open using your tailor board and clapper.  That last 1" will get flattened into a triangle.

Shape the end of the dart over the ham with steam and a press cloth if your fabric needs one.

On M6172, the next instruction is to stay stitch between the notches on the side front seam.  Do that now.

For this pattern the welt pocket opening crosses the front dart.  The canvas needs to be trimmed away so that it won't interfere with the pocket opening.  Take the original pattern piece and mark the pocket position on the canvas - it will only be a small amount.

Trim around this marking by 1/8" - 1/4".

Now place the canvas unit onto the back side of the outer fabric.  Align the pieces at all edges and tuck the inside edge of the canvas under the dart leg.  You may need to trim a bit of the canvas away to make everything lay flat - I had to trim some from the dart point.  Pin the pieces together.

Check to make sure that the pocket opening marks are in a straight line.  I had to adjust mine a bit.  Here's how it looked before I corrected it:

Now hand baste all along the outer edges.  You'll be sewing through the muslin and the outer fabric.  You can also baste the canvas to the armhole edge if you want to, but it's not important.  I did, just so I could sew one continuous line all the way around.

To keep the inner edge of the canvas from slipping around, loosely catch stitch the canvas to the dart leg.  If you don't have a dart, skip this step.

That's it for today!  Here's what you should have now:

Next time we'll be taping the roll line, at which point much of the tailoring is done and we'll move on to construction.