How to attach an embroidered patchwork with uneven edges to the neckline of a dress or top?---Tutorial

I made a kurta (or kameez) for me few weeks before, and it had a separate decorative embroidered yoke that had a neckline with uneven edges and cutwork leaf designs on the edges, which had to be lined because of the heavy embroidery with silk and metallic threads.

I would like to share the method for lining this type of neckline with a short tutorial. 

Step 1:

First, pin the embroidered neckline piece and the kurta front fabric together (place the kurta fabric below and the embroidered neckline piece on top of it, with the right side of the embroidered neckline facing the wrong side of the kurta front fabric). Then stick them on a glass window using adhesive tapes as shown in the image below. (You can use a light box as well.)

Trace the shape of the neckline on the wrong side of the embroidered neckline piece with a pencil. The royal blue fabric in the image is the kurta front fabric and the white fabric is the embroidered yoke piece with uneven neckline edges.

Traced neckline:

Step 2:

Without taking the pins off,  sew over the traced shape of the neck line. I sewed it by hand as I found sewing it by hand was easier than doing it with a sewing machine, as it had many curvy edges and cutwork leaves. 

Make sure you don't stitch over the cutwork leaves (highlighted in the image below). Fold them away, so that you don't catch them with the needle, and carefully stitch under them.

Step 3:

Then, cut along the shape of the hand-sewn neckline leaving a 0.25 inch seam allowance all around the neckline.

Step 4:

Make small slits around the neckline to get crisp edges when you turn it inside out. Now, turn the neckline inside out. Push the edges down and press both the embroidered fabric and the kurta front fabric along the neckline to keep the uneven edges neat and beautiful. (Make sure to cover the embroidery with a cotton fabric before you press over it, so that the embroidery threads won't get spoiled.)

Voila! You have got a neat-looking embroidered neckline!

You can also follow these steps to line blouses and dresses with necklines that have silk thread Maggam embroidery or heavy metallic thread embroidery.

You can find lots of free PDF printable sewing patterns on this page on my blog.

You can also click the Free Sewing Patterns Page at the top of this blog page (under the blog title) to find more free sewing patterns.

Click the below links to browse through all the pattern drafting and sewing tutorials on my blog.

pattern drafting tutorials 

sewing tutorials 

Happy sewing!