Sew Easy #11, Common Seams

after you've completed the two front units and the back unit you could go on to another unit or you can join these two and since we want to  handle our fabrics just as little as possible we'll join these two units together and then  hang them on a hanger and get them out of our way in order to join our shoulder seams  bring the right sides together and match the notches and pin them  then pin the edges at this outer edge at the neckline it's very important that  seam line match seam line and since our stay stitching but just outside the seam line  that would mean that our seam line is here on this seam and our seam line is here on this seam  so we put our pin just inside the intersection and bring it to the corresponding part on  the other side we will be joining seam lines and it's perfectly normal in this case for  this little part to stick out like a tab and for the back seam to appear to be  longer than the front shoulder seam the pattern was designed that way to give ease  over the shoulder blades in order to get the two seams to fit each other take a pin and lift  up one of the ease stitches about every half inch and then smooth over them to get them to fit and stitch the shoulder seam  from the high point down for machines without a back stitch set  your needle about a fourth of an inch from the seam line at the shoulder  and stitch out to the shoulder seam leave the needle down turn it  around and stitch the seam in place i'll repeat that on the other shoulder  seam without explaining anything and you watch and see if you can follow the steps and now we're ready to press these shoulder seams press the shoulder seam over the curve of the hem and you get rid of all the ease  that we pulled up in this back area by this time you'll be able to see whether  your seam edges are going to ravel or not and you can see that these are not raveling so  we won't need to put a seam finish on them you'll find that many of your tightly woven cottons with  the new finishes will not need to have a finish on the edges in order to keep them from  raveling but if they do need to be finished now's the time to finish them before we put  on the collar or set in the sleeves so let's look at some of those seam finishes one of  the most satisfactory finishes for a cotton material that ravels is to turn the edge back  and machine stitch it now if you're working on heavier material where these two edges will be too  heavy or will form a ridge when you press the seam you may want to leave the seam flat and machine  stitch about an eighth of an inch from the edge you can see that this will not prevent raveling  but the raveling will go down to the see the stitching line and then tend to stop if you  want a more durable finish use a zigzag stitch when you're making shirts or similar  types of garments such as this one there'll be times when you'll  want to use a flat fell seam on this strip of fabric we have all the steps  from the two separate pieces down to the finished flat fell seam the first stitching  is made with the two wrong sides together and is put in right on the seam line trim the  lower edge down to within an eighth of an inch from the stitching the upper edge is  trimmed about one fourth of an inch further out of course these measurements  would be increased on heavier fabric press the seam flat then this upper edge is  pressed back so it meets the lower edge at the center turn these edges down under and a second  row of stitching completes the flat fell seam we'll use these small pieces of  fabric to demonstrate the flat fell seam place the two wrong sides  together and stitch on the seam line in order that the garment will fit you and  that all the pieces will go together properly and then we'll turn the seam  over trim the lower edge off to within eighth of an  inch of our stitching line we want our seam to be a fourth of an inch  wide when finished we'll need to turn under an eighth of an inch that means we need  to trim off this much of the top seam press the seam flat and then  in order to keep from having any extra folds caught up in the wrong  side turn it over and press across the seam then back to the right side press this eighth  of an inch back with the tip of the iron and now we're ready to stitch  this fold down through our fabric and this will form the second row of  stitching as you saw in the small shirt and there's your flat fell seam a french seam would be ideal on this (inaudible) blouse for it not only makes a neat  seam on the right and wrong side but it will also be comfortable because those  sharp raw edges will be encased within a seam the french seam is really a seam  within a seam as you can see here first draw stitching outside the seam line trim the seam off press it so the seam is right on the edge the second row of stitching  which encloses the first seam and this is the way it looks on the right side now let's mark our seam allowance so that  you'll be able to see how we make that second row stitching come  out right on our seam line then place your seam guide on the width  of the seam indicated by your pattern take your tape measure and hold it  right along the edge of your guide and then push your guide forward a little more  than eighth of an inch and tighten it down now if you're using fabric  with the right and wrong side you'll have the two wrong sides together and then stitch your first row  stitching following the seam guide and trim the seam off to a little  less than eighth of an inch and press your seam flat fold it so that your stitching line comes  right on the edge of the fold and make a second row of stitching a little wider than eighth  of an inch in order to encase those raw edges and here we have the french seam completed and you can see that our second row  stitching came out right on the seam line remember that i moved the seam guide up  a little more than an eighth of an inch then i trimmed the seam a little  less than eighth of an inch and the second row of stitching was a  little more than eighth of an inch again now i've shown you two of the common seams and  the machine finishes for fabrics that ravel and next time i'm going to show you how to  make a collar that requires interfacing