Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Tuesday's Tip - Mock French Seam.....



I am working on a dress for Sweet Elisabeth. The pattern was designed by my friend Paige. I will write more about the dress and tell you about a free give away in a day or so. In the meantime....while sewing up the side seam the other night I accidentally forgot to sew a french seam instead of a regular seam. So....I did what I usually do when I forget to sew a french seam....I made a mock french seam. So I thought I'd show you how to do it too in case you ever want to use this technique. Above you can see my regular seam (looking at the wrong side of the dress).


Fold both sides of the seam allowance in towards the center and finger press or iron.


Then fold both sides together enclosing the raw edges inside.


Use pins to hold it all together until you can sew it. I only have the seam allowances pinned.....but I pushed it to the side so I could photograph it.



Go to the sewing machine and stitch about 1/8 of an inch from the edge.

This is what the seam finish looks like after stitching.

And here is the finished mock french seam. When a pattern calls for a french seam I generally do it the normal way...however, if I forget and don't want to rip out seams....then I finish the seam using this technique. It works great and I think it is really quick. What do you think? Have you ever used this technique? I'd love to hear about it.

On the sewing front....I have several outfits finished and am just waiting to get a couple of good photos....then I'll post them. And like I mentioned above....there will be a give away here very soon!!! Check back for details!!!! My very first give away....I'm so excited!!!

8 comments:

Katie said...

That's a great tip! And I also nodded my head with an "Amen, sister" when I read last week's tip about holding the thread tails. That's an absolute habit for me. It's such a small thing but it helps so much.

I'm excited about your giveaway too! What could it be? =0)

Ruth said...

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has forgotten to do one seam "Frenched" when the other seams were already finished. I've had to do what you showed here. Good tip!

Anonymous said...

That's a really great tip. I can see it could also save some time and frustration.

MorningSong said...

What do you do when you accidentally sewed up the arm holes of the butterfly sleeve and they are too tight! :) I've never finished a dress with the butterfly sleeves and that is where I am stumped at the moment on HC's heirloom dress. :) I have put it to the side for the time being hoping that God will open my eyes of understanding. That dress has stretched my sewing abilities SEW!!!! much! :)

Blessings!

MorningSong said...

By the way - I am using lace and not the actual sleeve. Since I didn't finish my project in class I didn't see how they tweaked the pattern for that! (I do not really expect you to answer - just sharing a sewing woe!)

Blessings!

Cindy said...

Katie...you always crack me up!! I sure wish we lived closer!!

Ruth...yes, I'm always doing things like that. I wish I could say I didn't...but I do!!!

Missy....thanks!! Have you or Annabeth been sewing anything lately???

Morningsong (Melodye)...I'll come to your blog and see if I can help you out. I am not familiar with butterfly sleeves....but I have made angel sleeves. What pattern are you using???

Kristie @ Me and My House said...

Great tutorial. Do you think you could squeeze in some time to put an actual french seem tutorial on here. I've not done one yet and some of the tutorials I've seen online were difficult to understand.

Cindy said...

Yes, I can probably muster up a french seam tutorial...it perplexed me for awhile too until I figured it out. Stay tuned!!!

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