Making a Facing Pattern

          A lot of today's clothing is made from knit fabric.  Therefore, a lot of patterns are made for knit fabric.  When making knit clothing, bias strips many times are used to "face" the opening of a garment.  A lot of tank top patterns today use bias strips.  However, if a woven fabric is being used, one might rather use a good old fashion facing.  Here's the straight forward simple directions to make a facing from the pattern. 

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Tuesday Tutorial

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 If you have a multi-sized pattern, fold back to the desired size.

Pin the pattern as shown to an ironing pad or piece of cardboard.

Determine how wide you want the facings to be.

The shoulders in this pattern showed that 2 inches would be wide enough.

A two inch line was drawn at the shoulder and side.

A sewing gauge helped mark 2 inches along the armhole.

For the back facing, I like tapering from 2 inches to a wider measurement at mid-back (fold) as shown.

Ready made garments use a facing with a larger back section to help the facing stay tucked in.

The arm hole facings won't be cut on the fold.

Lay them back on the pattern and lay a ruler parallel to the grain line on the pattern.

In this case the fold line on this Front pattern piece represents the straight of grain.

Draw a line using the ruler to be the grain line.

Double arrow represents straight of grain.

Then you know to lay the facings with the straight of grain line parallel to the selvage and the fold.

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Because I used facing patterns instead of bias strips,

I saved about a half yard of fabric!