Lingerie Sew-Along: Tap Pants Cutting, Darts and Yoke, Part 8

Most of you have already read that this week I lost my very dear uncle. It has been a very bittersweet week for me, getting to see so many loved ones for the first time in years (since we moved to Norway) and doing a few vacation-like things, yet still mourning the loss of someone who made my life so much richer.
I did something amazing on Friday in remembrance of my uncle. He was a great adventurer, living his life to the fullest at every opportunity. So in honor of him, I jumped out of a plane. I went skydiving with my husband and father in law, fellow adventurers, and 2 of the three people I would want to jump out of a plane with. The third was my uncle, no longer with us, but I jumped with him in my heart, and his name on my lips before the 120 mph fall completely knocked the air out of me.

My uncle said yes to every adventure, every opportunity for something new and exciting, and I mean to live the rest of my life just like that.

Still, I have been feeling horribly guilty for leaving you all hanging, having bought your patterns only to have them sitting half done for too long. I'm sorry. So with a buzz of relatives about, I was able to jot down a quick bit about cutting out the pattern pieces, and sewing the darts and yoke.


So today, if you haven't already, you can get started on cutting out our pattern pieces for the tap pants.  Here I have cut out 2 yokes from my contrasting solid fabric. This is the same cotton I used for my bra band. Whether or not you use a contrasting yoke is entirely up to you.

Note: If you have already made the mistake of cutting out the "V of Doom" at the placket opening, you might consider extending the edges of your second yoke piece by about 2 1/2" so that they face our "placket extension."

Here I am cutting out my main panty piece. To my eternal disappointment, I didn't have enough fabric left to make my plaids match very well. Oh well. It's times like these that I wish I could just pop to the local store and grab another yard or two.

Don't forget to cut out your back facing piece ON THE FOLD. (We went over drafting the facing piece in the last post.)

My back facing was just cut out from a scrap of fabric, ON THE FOLD.

Now in the photo below, I cut out my "V of Doom". Make sure you don't do that. Instead, remember to cut a simple straight line from the center of the V to the tip. This is where you'll put your placket.

Don't forget to make some notches so you know where to join your yoke.

Here again I have pinned where my darts should go. You can mark these any way you like, of course. This is just one of many ways to do it.

Marking my darts with pins.

My pins are all going in a direction where I can sew the dart tapering to a point.

Below is my back dart before I have trimmed it. Trim your darts to avoid any bulk.

Now we're going to attach the yoke to the panties. Match up the notches and pin only half of the yoke to the panties. Make sure that the points match at the center front.

Center front of the yoke and panty sewn together.

Above I have marked with a pin where I wanted to stop my stitching. Make sure that you don't stitch over the seam allowance of the point.

Now sew the other end of the yoke to the panty piece. Start at the end of your last stitch, at an angle.

Stitch all the way to the other end, to the gap for your placket.

 

Now your yoke should be completely attached to the front of your panty piece. This is where you'll want to do another fitting.  I'm sorry I don't have a picture of the yoke attached here. I have it saved in my editor for the next post but since I'm Bogarting my mother-in-law's computer to write this, I don't have access to my pictures.

I'll try and get the next post up soon. I'm sorry once again for the delay and thanks so much to you all for being so understanding.