TUTORIAL...How to Sew a "Designer" Elasticated Casing

 

This blouse in soft cotton batik is one that I made from 

this HotPatterns design...

This style can either be made with neck and sleeve bindings, or elasticated casings. I chose to make it with casings because I think it may be more comfortable in hot weather.

Making a casing for elastic is certainly one of our easier sewing tasks. Turn, stitch, insert elastic...done!  Sewn this conventional way, we end up with a perfectly acceptable casing that looks something like the photo below, after the elastic is inserted.  Fine...yet a little "bubbly and wobbly"...but something we have come to accept with elasticated casings.

However, by taking one additional construction step, you can achieve a "designer" look to an elastic casing garment. A very simple step that will result in a flat, even-edge casing every time, like the one in the finished garment shown....here is a close-up photo--  

 

So what's that extra construction step?  Edge-stitching!

After the casing is folded to the wrong side of the garment and stitched along the BOTTOM edge (leaving an opening to later insert the elastic, of course)....All that we need to do next to lend that "designer touch" is to edge-stitch the TOP fold of the casing...all the way around, as shown below--

By taking this one easy extra step, our casings lose the bubbles, 

and gain some designer panache!