have you ever wanted to make those professional seams you see on ready-to-wear projects with the
flat felled foot you can actually create those in two simple steps Bernina actually makes two
feet one with a smaller groove for more delicate fabrics with a four millimeter finished size as
well as an eight millimeter wide foot that finishes for heavier fabrics and for a bonus
I'm going to show you how you can make a nice quarter-inch tie using the wider foot now this
is achieved in two simple seams and if you don't have a serger or you just want that
nice finished seam on the back you're going to notice that there are no raw edges when you're
done we're going to start off with the larger one so we'll put on the eight millimeter flat
felled foot here the way you actually set it up is you need your fabrics positioned wrong
sides together and extending about a half an inch over the edge so we're going to go
ahead and start by turning this in putting it underneath the foot for its first seam
once this is actually started and I'm going to move the needle a little bit over to the
left side so I'm catching a little bit more closer to the raw edge of the fabric here
once I get it started sink the needle down and then you can actually bring that raw edge up into
the foot and the machine is really going to do the work for you you can almost close your eyes you
don't even have to really see it it's gonna guide it perfectly down through the groove of the foot
all right now for the fun part all you need to do is open this up you don't even need to press it
open we're going to slide it into the groove put it down and stitch again you're gonna find it's
going to guide this perfectly without you having to do much work at all and when you look these
seams are perfectly parallel like you've used the edge stitch foot but the foot is doing it
all for you look at how perfect that turns out you can use some of the like a triple straight
stitch you can use some heavier threads to get a more defined look it really is a neat foot
to have and look two simple steps and away you go let's try it with the finer fabric all right back
to a center needle position for this one you'll notice that is actually the only position that you
can use I'm going to just quick bring my bobbin thread or my top thread down below again we need
to position the fabrics wrong sides together and this time without as much of an overlap a little
bit smaller because this is for lighter weight fabrics so I'm going to just extend the lower
edge and put that underneath the foot just for a couple stitches before we load it up into the
groove once it's in there and just go ahead and stitch now just a note you're gonna find that
you do need to really have your tensions nicely set for this particular technique because one
seam you're actually seeing the back side of your fabric or the bobbin thread and the other seam is
the top stitching so if you have one that's a little bit not perfect you're going to notice
that so you want a nice balance steps use the same thread in your needle in your bobbin that's gonna
probably be the easiest way to achieve that you know for inspiration for where to use a
lap seam but all you need to do is really just look in your closet you're going to find a lot
of garments are completely constructed using this technique a lot of your men's shirts are done that
way and just bring that right on up notice I don't have to go the iron to press that over I'm going
to go ahead and just take that seen perfectly all the way down so yes look at ready-to-wear fabrics
if you're doing anything where you are crossing a seam and it's going to be a little bulky it's
recommended that prior to the seam you want to actually take the fabric out of the foot cross
over the bulky seam and then reload it into the foot it'll make it so it doesn't stick as it's
trying to go through that smaller area better you can do some gentle curves with this as well so as
you're putting in sleeves armhole areas it's going to be able to accommodate just perfectly in there
pretty all the way down okay ready for the bonus feature for making those ties we're going to use
the wider foot and that is number 71 the smaller one is number 70 now I've taken a strip of fabric
and pressed it a and a half wrong sides together I only have to do the first press I'm actually
going to finger press this in as I load it into the foot now this is actually super simple to
do you know who would want to take to your iron and try to roll that in so it's almost too small
to hold at your iron so I'm gonna just get it started the nice about a quarter inch finish
if you ever need a tie for something as we get it started here move your needle position as
needed based on your fabric thickness I'm going to just go ahead and get it started here lengthen
your stitch length if you want and then as you start there we go needle down and to hold it and
then we can just take our fingers hold this to the inside a little bit and you will find just
because of the groove that's made with this foot you may need to just assist it just a little bit
to get started and during the sewing process once the fold is created bring half of it the top half
up into the the fold of the foot and it will do the rest of the work for you stop when you need to
refold and your ties are going to be super simple to make and can be used on a variety of projects