Thursday 8 May 2014

A Dress for Meg - 2 - Felled Seams


For the shoulder seams on Meg's dress I have done felled seams.  There are various ways of doing felled seams, working from the front or the back, with or without a prominent ridge from the fold.  This is the method that I think works best on a child's garment, where the fold is on the inside.

First, with right sides together, I stitched the seam, and finger-pressed the seam open on the wrong side.



Then I trimmed down one of the seam allowances down by just under half its width.



The trimmed side of the seam is approximately three sixteenths of an inch.




Next I ironed the seam allowances to one side, the wider one covering the narrower one.



Then I turned the work over to work from the right side.  The next line of machine stitching went directly alongside the seam line, through all three thicknesses of material.  By keeping the seam line aligned with the edge of the left hand side of the foot... 




... the stitching came out nice and straight.  This is the right side.



Then I turned the work over again, and folded under the raw edge of the wider seam allowance, and ironed it into place.




Now for the third line of machine stitching, worked on the wrong side, along the folded edge.



To keep this line of machining straight, I used the outer edge of the left hand side of the foot as a guide, keeping an even distance between this stitching and the previous line of stitching.



Here is the finished seam, seen from the right side...



... and the wrong side.


Next step in this project will be drafting a pattern piece for a collar.

Linking up today to Kelly's blog My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday

10 comments:

  1. Nice tutorial. Flat-felled seams are extra work but they make so much sense for clothes that will be washed frequently. Thanks.

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  2. Great tutorial!
    Thanks a lot!
    Esther

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  3. This is a great tutorial! thanks for making it so easy!

    Thanks so much for sharing at Needle and Thread Thursday!

    :) Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation

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  4. I love finished seams... great description and accompanying photos of your lovely precise work!

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  5. Nice. Not being a maker of clothes, I never knew what felled seams were. Now I do.

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  6. Thank you for such a wonderful tutorial. You have to really love how well flat felled seams come out, they really put a nice touch on a garment ; )

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  7. Thank you for this tutorial! I plan to use this technique in the future. It gives a garment a great finished look.

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  8. What a great tutorial. I appreciate you sharing this, I've never learned how to do it, but it looks so awesome when done right. Thanks!

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  9. Hi Muv
    It's over six years since this post and I still reference it regularly to remind myself of the neat way you sew felled seams. I just made a pair of linen shorts for my almost three year old son and these felled seams should stop them from ravelling. Thanks for keeping up the blog.
    Gx

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    Replies
    1. Hello Gavin,
      Doesn't time fly! I hope the seams take all the punishment a little boy can give them! I'm sure he'll love his new shorts.
      Love, Muv

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