Pattern - Love Notions Vivace Dolman - XS - 5XL
Skill Level - Confident Beginner
Fabric - Rayon Challis from Fabricland
Skills - Working with interfacing
Love Notions' newest pattern is the Vivace (pronounced vee-VAH-chay) a loose fitting dolman shirt/tunic/dress that can be made from drapey knits and woven fabrics. There are separate pattern pieces for each fabric type and it includes that wonderful full bust pattern piece. As usual, Tami has visual help for you if you need it and there are 3 videos to walk you through attaching the collar.
I chose to make my shirt version from rayon challis, which is a lovely, light fabric but not necessarily the easiest to work with. I've put together a few tips for handling rayon challis, but they work equally well with all loose, light fabrics whether knit or woven.
Interfacing the Collar Pieces
It's very easy for light fabrics to get out of shape and interfacing helps keep them stable. I cut 2 pieces from the rayon challis and one from interfacing for each collar piece.
You can see that the back collar piece has definitely lost its shape compared to the interfacing!
However, with the interfacing on the bottom, I can easily nudge the fabric to match the interfacing and get it back into shape. Then a quick press on top - flip it over and press on the interfacing side and I'm done.
Avoiding Tucks
When you're trying to stitch stabilized and un-stabilized pieces together, it's so hard to avoid tucks in the piece that hasn't been interfaced if you have it on top. However, I've discovered a way around that.
When you stitch your two pieces together, put the un-interfaced fabric on the bottom. Your sewing machine's feed dogs will pull that piece through.
Understitching
Now that the two pieces have been stitched together, before you can turn them right side out, you need to understitch. Understitching performs two functions: it makes the turning easier and it provides strength to the seam. If you want to know more about understitching, I've done a blog post on it,
To Understitch Or Not, which you can visit through the link.
Everyone has their favourite way of doing understitching, but I like have the seam showing. I have the interfaced side on my left and the un-interfaced side on my right, with the seam folded to the right. My hands hold the sides apart. I run a line of stitching close to the seam line - about 1/8" from the stitching line.
Trimming the Seam.
Now that the understitching has been done, the seam needs handled so it will turn easily. You can clip the seam, but I chose to trim it.
I hold the collar in my left hand, this time with the un-interfaced side up and the seam to be trimmed is easily accessible to the scissors as I trim the seam back. I have applique scissors just for this process. The curved blades prevent the scissors from accidentally clipping where they shouldn't!
Now the collar is easy to press open and the understitching keeps the underside of the collar to the back where it belongs. A line of stitching across the bottom of the collar and I'm ready to install it in the garment! There is an excellent video in the pattern's tutorial to help you with this process.
Finish Your Seams
Once the collar has been sewn in place you are left with an unfinished seam. If you've used a woven fabric for your Vivace, there's always the possibility that the fabric can fray so seams need to be finished.
If you have a serger, you can just run around the edge of the collar seam to finish the raw edges. Your sewing machine will have stitches to perform this task - even a zig zag stitch will do. After all your hard work, the last thing you want is for seams to fray apart - finish your seams.
The Vivace is a lovely loose pattern that will carry you through those summer months. The dress version can also be used to make a comfortable nightgown. And have you noticed that with a pocket added it would also make a super uniform top for health care workers? This pattern is so versatile! You can get it through my affiliate link below.
