 Hi, it's Rosie here. I hope you're having a lovely week so far. I'm going to be doing a different type of video today, which has been a requested video, requested by Gemmy Jam, and she asks, I would love to learn on LearnSlashC, how you perfect as your zip finishing and lining skills. Now I definitely haven't perfected these skills at all. I found a way which works for me, and I think looks neat and tidy and does the job really quite well. I'm not saying this is the perfect way of lining your bodice, or necessarily the way that maybe the professionals do it, but it's definitely a way which is easy to do. I find really quick and gives a really, I think, a professional clean look to your garments. So I'm going to be at my sewing machine, showing you how I line a bodice. So the first step here, you can see I've cut out using my beautiful cotton and steel octopus fabric, two backs and a front in the main fabric, and two backs and a front in my bodice fabric. As you can see as well, I've already sewn in my darts, so I'm ready to get started. The first thing which I'm doing here is pinning the shoulder seams on both the bodice and the lining. So I'm pinning them together and sewing across with the same machine, just at the shoulder seam, not doing any other seams just the shoulders to start off with. Once you've sewn your bodice, front to your bodice backs at the shoulder seams, this is what you should look like. This is what your project should look like. At this point, it's also a good idea to give it a quick press with the iron. Make sure your shoulder seams are pressed open, your darts are all pressed in the right direction. The next step is to lay your lining fabric right side facing up down the floor. And on top of that, right size facing down, so you've got right sides facing each other on the inside, place your main fabric so that all of your seams are on the outside. And then what I'm doing here is just pinning all the way around the neckline. The first thing I do is I match up my shoulder seams and then I also match up the ends of the neckline and I pin all the way around. Next, I do the same thing with both arm holes, which I'm showing you here, so I just simply pin the main fabric to the lining fabric all the way around both arm holes. Again, always starting off in the center, matching up your shoulder seams and then working your way out from there. When you've pinned your neckline and your arm holes completely, it's time to head back to the sewing machine. And slowly and carefully as you'll be going around curves, stitch along those lines. So you're just going to sew all the way around the neckline, all the way around both arm holes, attaching the lining to the main fabric. Next, it's time to head over to the ironing board. Once again, lots of ironing involved in sewing, particularly with stiff cottons like these. And what we're going to do is just give the whole thing a really good press before we turn it inside out. Okay, the next bit needs to be very, very carefully done. I've absolutely messed us up several times. You need to pick up your scissors, see fabric scissors and notch all the way along the arm holes and neckline of your garment. And you can see here I'm going quite slowly and quite carefully. I like to do quite a lot of little notches, little snips, just because I think it gives a smoother curve. And you can see here I'm going all the way around the neckline and both arm holes. Here you can see a little bit of what it will look like once you've finished sniffing your curves. Okay, this next part is kind of my favourite bit because it's a bit that feels a little bit like magic when you turn the whole thing inside out. So what you need to do is pull, put your arm up through the bodice front and pull gently. Pull the bodice back through to the bodice front. So you can see I'm putting my hand through grabbing the fabric at the back and then pulling that through so it's the right way around. So it's no longer inside out on that side. And you repeat the process on the other side to make sure that the bodice back and the bodice front are both the right way round. So all of your raw edges around your neckline and arm holes are inside the dress. And your pretty fabric is on the right side of the dress. Now it's time to head back to the iron once again and give another press. This time is essential to iron. I mean it's always important but so you can really, really press out your neckline and your arm holes check that there's no pulling. And if there is, you need to go back inside with your scissors and give it a few extra snips. Check there's no pleating or anything bunching up on the inside of your fabric, stopping it from turning into a beautiful smooth look. At this point lots of people might choose to understitch their lining or perhaps topstitch. This is of course entirely up to you if you want to understitch or topstitch to keep your lining on the inside. Personally, if I was using a slippier fabric like a rayon, a viscous, something like that, a poly, yeah, poly. I probably would or I definitely would need to topstitch or understitch. However, with this fabric, I know that it's going to be fine. I know that it's a stiff cotton. I know my lining is going to stay where it needs to be. So once you press it all out, it should look something like this. You can see that the arm holes and neck holes are completely encased. There's no more edges there whatsoever. It's all nice and smooth and nicely pressed out. The next step we're going to be doing is joining your side seams. So you need to get your side seams, which I'll show here. You need to get your side seams from the back bodice and the front bodice and carefully pin them together. Ensuring once again that you match up your seams first, in this case it will be your underarm seam, which you need to match up and pin before you pin the sides of your lining and the sides of your main fabric for your bodice side seam. Of course, you have to repeat the step on both sides. Once you pin those bodice side seams, we're going to head back over to the same machine and stitch up the side seams. Again, going slowly and carefully, making sure you don't get any ripples. Once you've sewn your side seams, give them a little quick press open as always. It should be starting to look like a bodice exciting. After you've done this step, the next thing you'll need to do is attach your skirt. I'm not going to be showing that process in this video, but if you would like a video on that, do request it down below. Attaching the skirt is a really nice simple bit of this. So you just either gather or pleat or whatever you're doing with your skirt. And here it is, and looking like a dress. Once your skirt has been attached, it's time to insert your invisible zip or your regular zip, whatever you would choose to use for your project. So here I am sewing in my invisible zip. I don't have a proper foot to do this. I just peel back the teeth on zip carefully as I sew a long. Once you have inserted your zip, it's time to cover it up. So what I do, as you can see here, as I fold the lining over the top of the zip, and I pin all the way down, ensuring that I fold under a little fold at the waistline. This is so that we can slip stitch this into place to cover up the gathers on the skirt and any messiness which might be around the waistband later. So I'm just pinning down the side, and then I'm going to go right ahead and sew along that lines. I'm sewing the lining on top of the invisible zip with the right sides facing on both pieces of fabric. When you pull it out, it's a nice neat concealed invisible zip. So it's completely sandwiched nicely in between the lining and the main fabric. Some people do this by hand and like to slip stitch it, which is of course beautiful. I'm a little bit lazy sometimes, I do like hand sewing, but when I can avoid it, I do sometimes like a jiggy shortcut. So you're dressed should be coming together by now. I zigzag any visible skirt seams, so we decide on the center back seam on my skirt before pressing, again, lots of lining, like I said, pressing out my bodice and turning under that little lip which we fold over, folded over earlier on the bodice lining. Once I've folded over this edge, I pin it, as you can see here, over the top of the waistline, which hides all the gathers, and then I simply slip stitch it into place. Once you finish slip stitching, you'll need to hem your skirt, whether you choose to use it on the machine or by hand, entirely up to you. I actually chose to use the machine to do this hem, as I quite often do, and done! You have a finished dress! I put some close-ups in here, so you can see the details of how it's all finished around the neckline, the arm holes, and the zip and the waistline, just how I like to keep it looking neat and tidy inside my dresses. No invisible seaming on the inside of the bodice. Thank you so much for watching, guys. I really hope you enjoyed this video. It is my first how-to video, so I hope it was clear enough. I think visuals are the most important thing, particularly for me when I'm sewing things. Sometimes reading the instructions can be really confusing, but photos can be much, much more clear and helpful, so I hope this video has been helpful for you if you're looking for a few little tricks to finish your projects off neatly. Thank you so much for watching. Do come back again next weekend for a new video, and if, as this was a video request, if you have any particular video requests that you'd like me to film, then do leave a comment down below. Thanks for watching, hope to see you again soon. Bye!