To Understitch Or Not?

I didn't enjoy high school sewing - it was basic and boring and I dropped out as soon as I could!  However, sewing is in my blood - my grandmother was a real whiz, my grandfather was a Singer dealer and genealogy showed me a long line of seamstresses in my background - so I had to give it another try.  I took sewing in night school a few years later and learned a LOT!  And one of those lessons was the importance of understitching.

So what is understitching?  It's a line of stitching close to the seamline on the facing (or bias tape) side which prevents your neckline from rolling.  It keeps that facing where it's supposed to be.  It reinforces the seam - makes it stronger and less likely to fray with woven fabrics. And it makes turning that neckline (or sleeveless armscye) just so much easier.

I wanted to see what the real differences were with necklines understitched and not understitched so I cut 2 XS necklines from Love Notions' new Harmony blouse.

It calls for a facing of 1/2" single fold bias tape on the neckline.  I was careful while stitching down the bias tape to follow the curve of the neckline - not to straighten it while sewing - as this will cause stretching and the neckline will not lie flat if this happens.  You can stay stitch the neckline before sewing on the bias tape to prevent this, but I was lazy and wanted to get the job done - so I was careful!

I stitched the bias tape to both necklines to make a proper comparison.

Next, I understitched one neckline.  I brought the seam to the facing side and stitched slightly less than 1/8" from the seamline while holding the seam to the facing side.

I took both necklines to my iron.  The understitched neckline was so much easier to iron!  Most of the work had already been done for me by the understitching.  The other neckline took more work to make sure that the facing didn't show.  It seemed to me that the understitched one also lay flatter.

Finally, I topstitched both necklines.  (And wouldn't you know - I ran out of thread while topstitching the understitched one!) The understitched one on the right definitely lay flatter.

After ironing, both necklines lay flat, but I could see where a bit of facing was peeking up on the non-understitched one and the neckline wasn't as smooth.

Conclusion?  If you want the neckline to be as trouble-free and smooth as possible, definitely take a little time and understitch it!

And want to try your hand at understitching?  Love Notions has a couple of great patterns that are easy to sew and you can use my affiliate links below to get them if they aren't already in your inventory.

Love Notions Harmony Blouse
Love Notions Cadence Dress & Top