We all know that you need to be finishing your seams
on your sewing,
but actually not finishing the raw edges of the fabric is
one of the biggest mistakes that I see new sewers making.
And it can be really hard because the most common seam
finishes finish is of course the overlock or the serger seam,
but this requires a whole other machine.
And when you're just beginning to,
so you probably don't have an overlook or a serger.
So in this video,
I'm going to talk to you and show you six different
seam finish methods that you can use that do not require
an overlock or a serger.
Convert my lovely ladies and gents.
It's always a pleasure to see your smiling faces.
If we're just meeting for the first time,
my name is Evelyn Wood,
and I'm the creator of Vintage Sewing School.
And I've been to sewing school and here we focus on
vintage sewing techniques that can really help improve your dressmaking from
modern day sewing.
And one of those techniques is seam finishes.
Now this is a skill that will take you a long,
long way through your sewing.
So being able to choose correct same finishes for your project
and even then developing and making more couture and more beautiful
seam finishes is,
is actually the,
the, like almost the number one way that you can make
your sewing.
It looks so much more professional is by using neat,
nice seam finishes that are appropriate for your project.
And when you're only just beginning to,
so you've probably don't have this magical device that is called
an overlock or a serger.
They are the same thing I use the word overlook us.
So FYI,
now it is the same finish that you will find in
99% of the garments that you see in the shops is
the overlock and it is the most versatile.
And I do recommend that if you're into sewing,
you do perhaps look at making an investment and getting yourself
an overlook,
but what do you do when you don't have one,
or you just want to try some more couture,
more historical seam finishes to your garments.
I have six different seam finishes for you that I'm going
to show you and talk to you about so that you
can decide which one you might want to investigate.
And perhaps try in a very next project just very quickly.
First, let's just talk about what is a seam finished because
there might be some of you that do not know.
So a seam finish is the treatment that you give to
the raw edges of the fabric past the seam line.
So where you've stitched a seam and it's those raw fuzzy
edges. You need to treat them in a way,
finish them so that they don't fray.
Because if you don't,
all of this will just keep fraying out and all of
your hard work,
all of your sewing would just disappear.
So this is why you need to see a seam finish
and it makes it look pretty on the inside too.
So the first one that we can do without an overlock
is actually the zigzag stitch.
You're probably familiar with this one,
but you can do this on your straight domestic machine.
And now the zigzag stitch is actually a few levels and
a few different ways that you can go about doing yours.
Exactly. You can start with sort of the basics exam,
and then you can sort of upgrade it,
adding a straight little stitch and using an overcast foot ends,
all sorts of things.
I actually have this video here,
we'll show you a tutorial on how to actually do that.
And that's the one that you really want to watch.
And it's probably the most durable as well for when you're
just starting out.
Is this exact stitch,
another seam finished that you can do is a French seam.
Now French seams are quite popular.
A lot of people I think,
look for them.
Now, my students actually admitted to sewing school have been enjoying
trialing their French seams because we just did a tutorial,
I think last month on how to do them.
So basically a French seam is a little counter-intuitive because B
all the raw edges are actually encased inside the sort of
seam that you create.
So you actually saw them wrong sides together.
First trim back your seam allowance,
then fold it out,
right sides together,
and then so down.
And that creates your final seam of the garment.
So that can be quite tricky,
particularly when you're learning to sew,
because you have to do wrong sides together,
then right sides together,
and getting the right amounts either way can be really quite
challenging mathematically.
And when you're not sort of used to seeing seam allowances
and everything,
it can be a bit tricky.
So I wouldn't recommend doing them as a very beginner,
but definitely French seams as something for a nice even sheer
fabrics. It's used for quite a lot to those things.
Chiffons, Georgette's organza because it's fully encased.
And it just looks like a little strip from the outside
when you see through it and suits finer,
you know,
more delicate fabrics,
because it can get bulky if you use it in Ethica
fabric. So that's French seams,
a another one to try and very,
very, actually all of these are really historical except this exact
stitch, all of these were used pre overlook us.
So before the sort of,
let's say maybe around the fifties,
when the overlook or became more commercially used,
these are all the same finishes that we used.
This one I see on vintage garments a lot.
So this is just a straight,
a straight turn and stitch.
So you,
so you're seen as normal.
And then the actual edges are just very,
very lightly rolled over and stitched down so that you end
up with just a stick seamless,
like stitch lines on the outside and the raw edges are
folded up underneath.
So this is used a lot on vintage garments that I
find fifties and earlier,
it is quite a nice,
neat seam finish.
It's easy to do for sure.
In our modern day lives of using a washing machine,
though, you really still do have the raw edges over on
the other side.
So it may not be the best if you want to
put this in the washing machine over and over again,
because they are still actually raw edges there that has kind
of turned over,
but it will last quite a while.
So that one is a nice one to try.
You can do it open.
You can do it close.
It does suit open,
probably the best.
Now next up is the pinking Shia.
So this is a very,
very common one that I find on vintage garments again.
So the pinking sheet is this little edge that has the
zigzags on there.
It's cut with special pinking shear scissors,
and they are for fabric,
not just like craft ones,
make sure if you're going to try this,
get the fabric ones,
and it just cuts a little zigzags into the fabric.
I also do talk more about this in this video here
as well about how you might be able to do the
pinking sheet edge too.
So a lot of people do add,
say a straight little stitch along this as well.
Just to give it a bit more structure again,
I wouldn't recommend this one for heavy washing use.
This was more used when items before washing machines and items
were hand washed and very delicately treated and washed less.
So it's more a treatment I would use for a delicate
item, something Shia,
something like that,
and a loose wave.
It's probably not going to be the best choice,
but it is a really nice,
easy finished that you can use.
Another very historical seam vintage that you might like to try
is a failed seam.
So a felled seam is actually very fast becoming my favorite,
and it is a tutorial I'm working on for my students
at vintage sewing school this month.
So we'll be seeing a lot of felled seams coming through
in my world very soon.
So felled seam is,
is really,
really nice.
It is a beautiful couture finish.
It can be,
and it is a lot easier to,
so then French seams,
for example,
because with a felled seam,
you can sew your seam as normal.
And then basically you trim back one side of the seam
allowance and then fold the long side back over the other
side too.
So you enclose those raw edges in the,
the little sort of seam casing that you make there.
So you have then two choices you can either hand,
so that,
that flap down,
which is what I would do,
or you can actually machine so that down.
And that's called a flat felled seam mostly.
So that's what you see on men's shirts and heavy duty
workwear where it's got that extra row stitching.
And underneath this seam allowance seems to be all tucked up
and under,
that's called a flat felled seam.
So you can do it either.
Or I like the hand stitch one,
it's a lot neater.
You know,
it gives us softer more couture finish,
and it's actually a little bit easier to adjust.
Should you need to,
because the hand stitches come out quite easy.
If you need to undo them,
and then you can still fit the garment,
fiddle around and just trim it back and then refill it
down. So it's quite,
quite easy to work with.
And if you need to make adjustments and older things,
it's really,
really quite easy to use.
So that's the felled seam.
And then the last one here is the Hong Kong binding
or a bound seam the same.
So this is where you actually bind the seam here with
usually bias,
binding a bias tape,
I should say.
And you use it as a binding.
So this is used quite commonly on either what's this one
and whole seam.
Maybe you've done French seams over everything else,
but because it's quite curvy around through here,
those seams don't really work so well.
And so bouncing works nice.
This is also really commonly used on a thicker fabrics like
jackets and moules and really loose weave type fabrics like that.
This is quite quite a nice seam.
So you do it does create make it quite bulky,
of course,
because you're adding so much more,
even more fabric to there with the binding.
So that's why you mostly use this for a thicker,
heavier fabrics.
So something on a really light,
sheer fabric,
it would just make the seam too stiff.
You'll see this come through and it will just,
it just won't really work.
So it's more for heavy duty fabrics can be open.
Seams can be close to seams,
but that is your bound seam.
So what same finishes do I mostly use?
Well, I mostly use an overlook seam.
It is sort of the most common and when you're refashioning,
I like to replicate the stitches that are already there.
And so that's using the overlock.
So it all blends in really nicely,
but I must admit of late.
My very favorite is to actually do the felled seams and,
and doing those by hand.
Of course,
that final hand finish,
I think gives just a beautiful look inside and out.
It feels divine.
It looks divine.
It can still be altered if need be.
So that's the kind of higher end one that I'm really
working towards using more and more in my sewing.
So what do you think,
do you have any other seam finished techniques that we should
add to the list?
Let me know and let me know which ones of these
that you use and which ones are you going to look
at, maybe up skilling yourself to and trying in your next
sewing project to really continue to grow your sewing skills.
As we all do believe that in the comments below,
I do absolutely love reading all your comments.
And if you really enjoyed this video and you actually know
somebody else who is new to sewing and could really use
a little bit of help and use this video,
I would be so grateful if you would share it with
them because the more people that this word gets around them,
more people will see sewing in this world.
And that is what we want.
Thank you very much for watching and all the links are
below to those other videos that I think that you'll really
enjoy. And until next time happy sewing,
bye.