Finishing touches prior to fitting - a day of hand sewing

Today we split the load between the two of us - I hand sewed the pleats to the yoke whilst Abi prepared the sleeve for fitting. This worked well as we weren't on top of each other and I think it was faster.

I firstly had to prepare the pleats so that they fitted into the distance of the yoke which is 33cm. They fit tightly in place which looks quite neat. On the toile we felt the pleats were too loose on bits and so you could see the threads, which we didnt want.

I then sewed together the yoke and ironed the CB seam open and ironed the hem up on the design line. I then marked where I was sewing to on the pleats. On the toile we sewed edge to edge but then in the first fitting we realised that the yoke was sewn 1.5cm down the pleats, which was hidden in the lining.

I feel at first I was quite slow at the hand sewing, as I hadn't figured out the best method, however after a while I started doing them all the same as shown in the photos above.
Starting with my thread through the yoke, I firstly put my needle through the pleat, left to right, and then stitched through the yoke, left to right. Then I stitched the pleat again and back to the yoke to move onto the next pleat. This meant that the seam is strong and all the stitches look the same so on the right side it is not that noticeable. It was hard to hand sew for so long as the fabric is so dense.

I am pleased with the end result. I think that they look neat and are strong and durable.