There are so many different seam finishes,
types of seam finishes to choose from.
It's hard to know what ones are good for,
what type of garment and what kind of use.
So confusing.
And because we all know when you choose the wrong seam
finish, it can be an absolute disaster and your entire garment
will just fray in front of you.
We've all had this.
So in this video,
let's, let's talk through the different types of seam finishes and
what kind of projects and users that they're good for.
So you can make better choices and perhaps experiment a little
in your next seam finishing.
Welcome back.
My sewing friends.
It is a lovely to have you here again Today.
If you are just new here,
welcome. My name is Evelyn Wood.
And here on this channel,
we do everything sewing skills to really help you create the
garments and the projects that you want with not just like
learning the skills that you need.
And one of those skills of course is seam finishes.
Now I know you probably,
you know,
that you have to do a seam finish and what it's
for to stop fraying.
And because aesthetic reasons,
it looks pretty on the inside too.
And there are so many different types of seam finishes.
Maybe you're experimenting with different types,
branching out your skills and try new things.
But as you get to make more and more different types
of garments,
you will find that you'll want to experiment and try different
types of seam finishes and different fabrics require different types of
seeing finishes,
because I know,
you know,
as well,
you probably had this happen.
You tried one type of seam finish.
You put the garment in the wash,
you pulled it out and a nightmare.
It is literally will just fray out in front of you.
If you don't use the correct seam finishes for the one
is the type of fabric plays a part.
And then to the actual garment and the garment use,
which also comes into the care of the garment as well.
So they're the main factors that we look at when we're
choosing types of seam finishes.
Let's go through our list of seam finishes the different types,
and we'll talk about what kind of uses that.
They're good for what they're not good for.
So you can get better at choosing different types of seam
finishes for your next project.
Cause I hope that you will try something different.
So let's start with some of the easiest,
seam finishes and work our way up to some of the
harder ones.
First one is a pinking shears edge or a paint edge.
What this is is you've probably seen those scissors with the
zigzag edges.
And basically you cut your fabric with these exact scissors and
you get this little zigzag edge,
a pinked edge,
how this works is because the fabric is cut in all
these eggs.
It can only fray through the top of these triangle parts
and it can't fray down any further.
Trust me,
it does work,
but not for everything.
Of course,
this type of seam finish is quite a vintage type.
You'll see it in many garments,
pre overlook as is generally one of the most used.
So what is this seam finished good for?
Well, it's good for recreating a vintage look,
if you want a really authentic feel inside and out,
I think the edge will give you that it is very
easy. You can actually cut out your fabric,
cut out your patterns with the pinking sheer edge,
and you do your seam finish at the same time.
As you cut your fabric out,
that's quite a time-saver.
It can be really good for shear and light fabrics because
you don't have anything obvious when you see through the first
layer of fabric,
you'll only see a nice little zigzag edge to it.
That actually looks quite nice.
And so what is it not good for?
Well, this is definitely not good for loose weave fabrics.
So if your fabric is really frozen to,
to frame it very easily,
and it's a loose weave,
you can tell by it,
the framing is just crazy.
It will not be a heavy duty enough seem finished at
all. It's not good for garments that you want to machine
wash. It's really a handwash only type of seam finish.
It's very light and delicate.
And so it should really only be hand washed,
okay. For items that are only going to be Bosch a
little as well.
Not very often,
the next seam finish on our list is the zigzag edge
or overcast edge.
I'm going to put them in the same box because they're
very similar types of finish.
And this is what you'll choose generally,
if you don't have an overlook or a serger.
So he,
the exact finish is just the zigzag function on your straight
sewing machine.
And it just does a Zig and zag.
You can either do it in your fabric or you can
actually do it over the edge as well.
And sort of in cases,
the, the rural edges of the fabric to stop the frame
and you're right,
overcast, it just adds an extra sort of a semi surged
mock look with the straight stitch at the same time.
And it can look a little bit nicer,
at least I think anyway.
And so what is this good for?
This is fantastic when you don't have a serger or an
overlock and you need something quite heavy duty,
but quite easy to do.
And just sort of your average,
like all in one,
do all seam finishes.
Exact is a great go-to in lieu of your serger or
overlocker. It is also really great to use for knitwear because
it stretches as well.
So it can be very,
very useful for finishing your edges on your Netfabb works.
And you can also have stretch zigzags as well,
but kind of do little stitches along the zigzag as well.
So that really holds the fabric flat.
So there are many options there,
all in all,
this is a good around a seam.
It can be machine washed,
it's heavy duty it spend your time doing a few little
extra trimming of fabric and overcast stitches,
et cetera.
And it can look really quite nice as well,
but what does it not good for?
Well, often it's not good if you want to on open
seams. I don't know different machines at different,
but often single layer does not want to zigzag.
Stitch very well can happen quite frequently on machines.
So sometimes single layer open seams.
It's not great.
It's also not really great.
Sometimes if you want to,
it can just be really messy sometimes and not look as
professional as you might.
Like. It depends on your personal aesthetics,
but it can just look a little bit sort of homemade
and a little bit less professional depending on what you're making.
So, you know,
sometimes as again,
that's the only really aesthetics and a personal opinion there,
and you might find really bulky fabrics don't zigzag very well
either because it just ends up being really,
really sort of bulky and thick.
And again,
a really super loose weave fabric,
really loose weave.
It might not be good for as well.
And sometimes she fabrics as well,
really, really lightweight it.
Your machine might not like to zigzag those either.
So it can be a little bit temperamental when you sort
of go big of fabrics,
find a fabrics,
but as most things are,
it's always more difficult when you go to either end of
the scale on the fabric width,
but bear in mind those otherwise it's a good all in
all seem finished to use for most things.
Now, I know we're all familiar with this one and that
is your overlocker or your serged finish.
And yes,
these are the same thing.
So your overlook or a surge at your you're familiar with
this, it is the overlooked edge that's in about 95%,
99% of garments that we actually buy in the store.
You will find a overlooked seam finish.
Now, this is really great because it is the most professional
looking or at least the most what we're used to seeing
in garments.
You can do it open.
You can do it close.
You can it's what is it really good for is it's
good for multipurpose,
everything you can do open seams cloud seams.
It's great for knitwear because you can actually,
so you're straight seam at the same time,
like your actual seam and your seam finish all in one
with a four thread function.
So it's quite good on knitwear for that.
It is also good for,
well, pretty much everything.
It's good for speeding up the time in your process,
your sewing process as well,
because it is a separate machine.
You can have that set up and you can just do
your seam finishes.
Come back to your straight.
So machine do all your straight sewing come back to,
so do your seam finishes,
no like messing around with different dials and settings back and
forth and changing your machine.
You have two separate machines for the two different jobs and
it can make your sewing quite quick and easy.
The only downside is of course,
that you have to have an actual separate machine and is
not always feasible for all of us to have that separate
machine, but that's probably the only real biggest downfall of it.
Let's look at a good,
another old fashioned seam finish and turn and stitch.
So this one is where you simply fold over the raw
edges. You so your same as normal fold over the raw
edges and actually just stitch them under stitch down.
So you end up with two rows of stitching and your
edges are turned under.
Now you can actually incorporate this with the pinking she edge
so you can pink it and then turn it under and
stitch it as well.
So this one again is a little bit more of an
old fashioned of vintage type of seeing finished pre overlook,
but it was a great choice if you don't have an
overlook or search out,
this one is really good for most types of garments.
Again, it's really only on the either end of the spectrum,
very sheer and lightweight fabrics.
You can sort of see it turned over and you're still
see-through and it can look a bit messy.
There's probably other choices you'll want to use for that type
of thing.
And again,
super bulky fabrics turning it over and stitching just adds a
lot of bulk because you're doubling the layers.
So it might not be appropriate for things like that.
But this is a great seam finish that you can use
different areas for different things.
You can still machine wash this one,
although, because you still have those raw edges sort of exposed
it wouldn't I would use delicate cycle only for this one.
Now we get into some of the,
a little bit more complicated type of seam finishes are felled
or handheld or machine felled seam.
So what is this exactly?
So you can do a felled machine either by machine.
So usually called a flat Feld C and it is where
you actually see the top stitching on the right side of
the garment.
If you look at any pair of jeans and men's shirts
in particular,
they all seemed with this type of finish.
So in the raw edges are all encased in the seam
and it's stitched down nice and tight.
Now you can do the same thing and do a hand
finish in which from the outside,
it's actually invisible.
You don't see any of the stitching at all,
but on the undecided,
the construction is the same,
but instead of a machine stitch to finish you hand stitch
it and then get that nice invisible finish.
And so what is this one good for?
Well, I think this one is one of the most versatile
seam finishes if you want to go to the higher end
scale. So that's my personal choice anyways,
to do handheld as well,
rather than a machine one,
I like to do handheld,
but it's really good for pretty much most fabrics where you
want, you don't want sort of visible overlocking or zigzag.
You want it all neat and tucked in and really sort
of high end looking I felt seen is perfect.
So it's constructed by trimming off one,
like you saw your SIEM as normal.
So you get to spit as you go still,
and everything is as normal as opposed to the French seam,
which we'll have coming up.
I prefer a felled seam usually because it's a bit easier
to manage so you can sew right sides together,
as you normally do,
fit everything,
tweak, adjust,
and then do you seem finish as normal?
So you actually trim one of the layers as well.
So it can be less bulky than a French seam because
you have one less layer also.
And I like that.
It's nice invisible.
Everything's tucked in.
It's really,
really nice.
What is it not good for?
Well, again,
usually either end,
but generally lightweight.
And she fabrics,
this will be a perfect finish to do not machine finish,
but a hand finish will be exceptional.
It will be delightful on those light and sheer fabrics.
But again,
anything really bulky you might find because you're folding it over
a lot that it's just too bulky,
a seam finish for those really thick wool fabrics or things
like that.
And then of course we have the French theme.
So it is similar in that your raw edges are all
encased in the fabric itself.
And so this one,
you probably know you,
so a wrong sides together,
trim it down,
then turn right sides together and then sew it.
And then your end up with the little flap here that
the raw edges are actually inside there because you have a
seam on this outside here that actually in cases,
all of those raw edges.
So what is this one good for?
It is great for sheer and find fabrics because you don't
have any messy overlooking stitches was exist.
Stitches that look messy on a sheer garment where you see
through and see that it's a lovely for those it's because
you have many layers.
It doesn't really matter with sheer fabrics and you can get
a really tight,
nice narrow seam as well as really lovely.
What does it not good for generally bulky fabrics?
Because as you can imagine,
there's four different layers in this seam and it just will
not work with anything,
even a medium to heavyweight.
No good.
So different seam choices for those types of fabrics.
This one doesn't matter,
loose weave tight weave because your raw edges are all encased.
It is great.
And machine washable heavy duty as much as you like because
all of those raw edges are encased in the seam,
but it can be really hard.
The French seems to navigate because you have to go the
opposite. You actually saw wrong,
wrong sides together first,
and then trim it down.
And then you,
so again,
to get your actual stitch line,
so you can't fit as you go,
because it's just not possible.
You often,
as we all do trying these,
you instinctly so right sides together and then have to undo
it and redo it.
And that's some of the reasons why I like a felled
seam as well.
It's just easier to put into my routine,
but French seams are absolutely beautiful.
And a little tip.
I hear that in France,
they're actually called English seams,
which I find so amusing.
Let's take a look at bound seams or sometimes called Hong
Kong binding bound seams.
So what these are is you actually have a separate piece
of binding.
So whether it's binding that you've biased strips,
that you've made yourself into binding or a,
you have pre-made bias binding,
and you actually,
in case the raw edges in the binding that you've got
there. And so it,
you can do open or closed and it works great for
either what is this good for?
This is really great for thicker fabrics because you kind of,
you don't actually have to fold over the thick fabric.
It on itself,
you can,
in case it in a lighter weight binding and cover it,
it is really grateful,
loose weave fabrics because you're actually covering those raw edges.
And it just really can't fray out.
So loose wheat fabrics have really great for this.
It's nice on a thick and sturdy fabrics because it just
gives that sturdiness that a bit more structure to woolen garments.
And it's really,
really great for things like unlined jackets and coats,
where you actually see the inside.
And if it's not line,
do you want something really,
really pretty that almost looks decorative in itself.
And that is definitely our bound seam for those types of
things. And now,
what is it not good for?
So I might not be good for fine fabrics because you'll
find trying to bind over a fine fabric.
The binding will be stiffer.
They're like the seam finish here will be stiffer and thicker
than your actual fabric.
And it just will not look very good.
It just won't work.
It won't fall.
Why it just won't work.
So it,
on the other end,
if you're seeing binding here,
your binding does add thickness,
of course.
And sometimes depending on what you're doing,
it is just too thick and bulky.
Maybe it's making it too thick.
And so it can't work again.
And again,
it's always on those,
like either end,
really lightweight,
really heavyweight they're always have their troubles,
but otherwise generally you probably wouldn't go to all this effort
for just an everyday kind of where,
because it it's a lot of extra work to have to
bind every single seam.
And so you might choose other seam finishes for more of
an everyday finish,
but use this one for more,
those special occasions,
something really special something where you see the inside of the
garment, a lot that like a jacket that might actually open
up and see it and use it in a decorative way
as well.
And of course we have all the different types of tutorials
and everything in vintage sewing school.
This is what I do there.
If you're interested to really learn how to implement these new
skills that you have,
or new knowledge in at seam finishes,
I've left some links down below to come and join me
there. So did you know that there are so many different
types of uses?
I think for fun on this video,
why not leave us down below?
What, what has been the worst experience?
The photo par,
if you will,
the mistakes that you made in doing a seam finishes just
for a bit of fun.
So we can all laugh at those terrible mistakes that we
thought were really good at the time,
and it just turned out awful.
So leave those comments down below.
I think it is really fun and it's always great learning
to learn from all of our own mistakes,
because we've all put something in the wash and it sprayed
out, read those comments down below as well for extra juicy
info. Thank you so much for watching.
And until next time,
my sewing friends,
bye.