French Seams

French Seams are a really useful, low tech, high quality seam

and finish in one.They take planing and precision, but are not 

difficult to do, and with practice, you can make a really nice 

quality seam.

This is a great seam for soft or sheer fabrics that tend to ravel, 

show through, or are highly stressed. Practice by starting with 

a stable fabric, like a nice cotton. Don't start with that beautiful 

sheer silk piece you just love; you will hate it one minute after 

starting!

Here is a step by step tutorial to help you out: 

Set a gauge on your machine. If your  machine does not have gauge marks on the throat plate or machine bed, measure from your needle to the correct measurement, and mark the placement with a piece of masking tape, squared to the needle. Use your foot to square the tape. The first part of the seam is sewn at 1/4" (when using a total of 5/8" for your seam allowance) and 3/8" for the second part of the seam.

Place the two pieces you will be joining wrong sides together, match the ends of the seam and place under the foot lined up with the 1/4" gauge mark. On my machine, that is just inside the edge of the pressure foot.

Sew the right side out seam 1/4" from the edge of your fabric.

Press the seam as sewn to set the stitches into the fabric.







Open and press open on the wrong side.





Flip over and press seam open from the right side. This will help the stitches roll to the edge, rather than to the side in the next step.




This step will not be possible, or prudent, with some fragile fabrics. Instead, just press the seam, covered with an organza press cloth, first to one side, then to the other.

Fold the fabric wrong sides together, encasing the seam.





Roll seam to the edge of the fabric. It should be between the layers at the edge, not on the top or the bottom.

Press seam at edge.






Sew second part of the seam at 3/8", the remainder of the original 5/8" seam allowance. This encloses the 1/4" first seam, leaving a very small space between the seams, so if your fabric frays badly, be sure to trim small sections as you sew, or you will have all kinds of "stubble" poking unattractively out of your seam. Ask me how I know!

Press as sewn.





Press open.






 Seam complete.
Totally finished on the inside!




Looks like any normal seam, but remember that it does stiffen the fabric at the seam.





For most uses, this tutorial would stop here. but with a fabric like this print, if there was no gathering, and this were in a highly visible area, I would want to match this fabric, but it's a french seam! How would you do that?

First, cut out only the 1st side. Fold back the full 5/8" seam allowance and press.






Place pressed piece on top of fabric and determine the direction of the design. Rotate piece so both are in the same direction.

Compare patterns and find matching ones.






Move the piece around until the pattern matches perfectly. Try to be as conservative in your layout as possible so you waste as little fabric as possible. Also think of other pieces you will have to layout so you have enough fabric to cut what you need.



Lift the edge of the top piece to expose the edge of the pressed under seam allowance. Pin through both layers to hold the fabrics together and keep the pattern matched.

Carefully flip the fabric over and finish pinning the seam allowance. Flip back and double check that the pattern is still matching, then fold back right sides together and cut the second piece, using the first piece as the pattern for the second.



Reverse the pieces right sides out and sew at 1/4" with edges matching.

Press as sewn, then press open, being sure not to flatten the seam crease.







Fold right sides together, roll seam  to edge. Press.










Sew 2nd part of the seam at 3/8".

Open and check pattern match.

Ok, this is too deep at 3/8", so I will rip it out and re-sew it just below 3/8".







Ripped and re-sewn at a scant 3/8". If you can see it, the needle is just inside the first row of stitches.

This is much better. I probably could have moved over even a little more.








Press as sewn.








Press open.

Done and Matched.

Left- Unmatched

Right- Matched






Which you choose to do depends on your final product. A gathered skirt, in these flowers, does not need to be matched, but if it were in an uneven plaid, it would really need to be. The seams of a bodice would look so much nicer if you took the time to match your pattern.