As a follow up to Monday’s post on French seams I wanted to post how to deal with seam allowances that differ from my tutorial since I’ve gotten a lot of questions about this. The three pieces above have a 1/4″ seam allowance, a 1/2″ seam allowance, and a 5/8″ seam allowance. Basically when you do a French seam, you’re going to first stitch half of the seam allowance for the first seam (with wrong sides facing of course), but in situations such as a 5/8″ seam allowance stitching at 5/16″ is just not going to happen, nor does it need to. Stitch 3/8″ for that first seam.
From there press the seam open and trim the seam allowances in half. From left to right the original seam allowances are as follows… 5/8″ – 1/2″ – 1/4″
Press the seam with right sides facing to enclose the seam allowances. You’ll be stitching the 5/8″ seam allowance at 1/4″, the 1/2″ seam allowance also at 1/4″, and the 1/4″ seam allowance at 1/8″
From left to right above we have the finished 1/4″ seam allowance, the 1/2″ seam allowance, and the 5/8″ seam allowance. Hope this clears things up a bit on various seam allowances.
sophiecrespy
so very helpful! thanks!
janet
I love the fabric you used for this tutorial! Can you share where it’s from?
Jen
It’s a fat quarter of quilting cotton I got at a fat quarter sale some years ago and unfortunately came without an informational selvage. Sorry I’m no help on this!
Erika Arens
So really I could do French seams on 3/8″. First sew with a 1/8″ and then with a 1/4″? A lot of my international patterns use 3/8″ and I was upset when I thought I couldn’t do french seams. Sometimes I worry about my math skillz.
Louise
I’m working on a low-quality chiffon blouse right now and French seams are the only things keeping the darn fabric from falling completely to pieces! I’m so grateful for your helpful hints.
Stephanie
Thank you for putting this together! Bookmarked immediately. I always find myself searching for “French seam for ___” seam allowance” before sewing (even though the math is pretty simple.. I like to be extra cautious!) and it is so nice to have this in one place 🙂
coralee hines
Very clear instructions – thank you!
Laura
So grateful for your post! It’s bookmarked and I will refer to it until I get the hang of it. Many other posts show how to sew a French seam, but do not give instruction on how to work with seam allowances. Thank you!
Norma
Thanks so much for the clear, concise instructions. Seems like I have to relearn this each time I do it, so I don’t do it as often as I’d like to. You’ve made it simple.
Sylvia
I saw your first tutorial about french seams and that was my question too: how much seam allowance. Great that you made it clear to all of us. Thanks a lot!