Tutorial: How to Clean Finish Armholes and Neckline

Today I have a quick little tutorial for you to show you how I clean finished both the neckline and the armholes of my Colette Moneta Peplum.

When making the sleeveless version of the Moneta [V1], the bodice lining is used in a nifty little way to give the armhole edges a clean finish. The neckline is finished by attaching the collar. If you'd prefer not to have a collar, however, you can follow a few simple steps to finish the neckline with the lining. This tutorial can work for pretty much any simple knit bodice.

First, trim 1/8" off of the neckline and armhole edges of your lining pieces. This will make the lining roll to the inside of the finished garment.

Now sew your shoulder and side seams of both your shell and lining.

Turn the shell right side out. Stuff the shell inside the lining so that right sides are together and line up the neckline edges. Start by aligning and pinning the shoulder seams, then work around the whole edge.

Now sew the neckline edge.

Flip the lining so that it is to the inside of the shell and the shell and lining are wrong sides together. From this point you can follow the pattern instructions and finish the armholes the same way. It will be a teeny bit harder because the neckline is sewn shut, but it's still totally possible.

For pictures of the armhole finishing process, check out this post in the Moneta sewalong [start with step 6]. There are tons of pictures there which is why I didn't repeat them all for this post.

You can also check out this video on the Coletterie for even more visuals of the armhole process.

Once you do the armholes, your bodice is done and so so squeaky clean!

At this point you can just treat the bottom edges as one [I like to baste them together with a zig zag stitch] and continue on with attaching your skirt/peplum/whatever.

Comment below if you have any questions!