Sewing Tips: How to Sew a Shirt Placket Onto a Garment

Video Transcript

" Hi! I’m Stephany from Stephany’s Simply Sewing on behalf of expertvillage.com. I’d like to show you how to attach that placket to the body of your shirt. Once again, I’ve already attached my interfacing to the wrong side of my fabric and I’ve trimmed it. I then match my raw edges against my shirt, and my instructions tell me to match the right side of my placket to the wrong side of my shirt. I know this is my wrong because I have my shirt pocket on this side. Those notches that we cut out help us to match our pattern pieces. I match these pieces and pin them. This is a pretty straight seam, and so I probably won’t need to pin as much as I would on a curved seam. However, be sure and pin as much as you feel comfortable pinning. Once I’ve pinned my seam, I’m going to sew 5/8 of an inch along my seam line. This is according to my pattern directions. This information about your seam allowance can be found on your pattern piece. Now that I’ve securely pinned my placket to my shirt, I’m going to go ahead and sew 5/8 of an inch. Remember, my line on this sewing machine is where this tape is. The raw edge of my garment is going to be near this seam or this paper edge that gives me an accurate seam. Be sure and follow your machine wherever that seam is. Sometimes when you’re a beginning sewer, it does help to place a piece of paper along your seam line. After you’ve sewn this placket on, the directions are going to tell me that I need to press it. One of the most important processes of sewing is to press as you go. Your iron is your friend. A lot of times garments that have been made at home look homemade because they have not been pressed. This is how you attach your placket to your shirt body. "