How to Sew a French Seam

Step 1, sewing, french seams - Sewing Avenue, Sewing Blog - Image -

Hello or should I say Bonjour ?

Todays blog tutorial is How to Sew a French Seam.

The french seam is a very neat encased seam which has the reputation of being difficult to achieve but it really is not. You do however have to get used to the method of sewing with the wrong sides of your fabric together, which seems a bit backwards at first. It is stitched twice, once from the right side and once from the wrong side. It is the classic seam finish for sheer and very light weight fabric, enclosing all of the fabric edges so they can not fray open. It looks nice when the finished width is just ¼ inch or 6mm. It is best used on straight seems as going around curved edges can be tricky. For curved edges it is better to apply the mock french seam (another tutorial).

Step 1

With the wrong sides of the fabric together, stitch ⅜ inch or 1 cm from the edge.

Step 1, sewing, french seams
Step 1, sewing, french seams

Step 2

Trim seam allowances to ⅛ inch or 3 mm.

Step 2, sewing, french seam
Step 2, sewing, french seam

Step 3

Press the seam open. Fold the fabric so that the right sides are together with the stitched line exactly on the edge of the fold and press along the seam edge again.

Step 3, sewing, french seam
Step 3, sewing, french seam

Step 4

Stitch on your seamline, which is now ¼ inch or 6 mm from the fold. Press finished seam to one side.

Step 4, sewing, french seam
Step 4, sewing, french seam

Voilas,

Now you have the perfect french seam for all of your sheer, silk and light weight fabric projects. Use the comments box below to tell me what’s on your sewing table at the moment, I’d love to hear from you.

Happy sewing

Hi, my name is Sarah and welcome to my blog site. I have created Sewing Avenue.com as a vehicle to share my love of sewing and fashion with you and to hopefully inspire you to create your own fabulous versions of beautiful, stylish and classic clothes for your body shape and size.

Sarah

Hi, my name is Sarah and welcome to my blog site. I have created Sewing Avenue.com as a vehicle to share my love of sewing and fashion with you and to hopefully inspire you to create your own fabulous versions of beautiful, stylish and classic clothes for your body shape and size.

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