A tutorial on sewing french seams quickly, without any trimming or tricky measuring. This is a perfect method if have less time or just don’t want the extra work.
French seams are beautiful, but can be quite time consuming and fiddly if you do it the “proper” way, i.e. first do a narrow 6 mm (1/4 inch) seam, cut away around half of the fabric, press and then do another narrow 6 mm (1/4 inch) seam. So when I was fazed with doing a gazillion of french seams on my new dress (including a voile lining) I instead resorted to my french seam hack, which is a quicker way do to this classic seam. It is not as not as narrow or as as immaculate as the real deal, but good enough if you don’t want or need a couture finish.The trick is to simply change the width (preferably by moving needle position if you can) and skip the fabric trimming and the first pressing. So lets get going!
1. Set up the sewing machine to sew a narrow seam
I moved the needle position one step to the right and then used the edge of the presser foot as a guide. This made the seam about 4 mm. Of course you can just use presser foot as a guide too, if you can’t change the needle position. Sew the seam with the wrong sides facing (the upper right side should be what you see when you sew)
2. Trim frayed edges (if needed)
Since my fabrics frayed like crazy I trimmed the loose strands with a scissor. I later tried using the rotary cutter and that worked even better. You need to get rid of the threads as they might peek through the seam otherwise. But if your fabric doesn’t fray much, this step is not needed.
3. Set up the sewing machine to sew a slightly wider seam
4. Flip the fabric and sew the second seam
5. Press the seam and enjoy the result
Yes it is wider and not as refined perhaps as the real deal, but in my book this french seam version looks good enough. How do you do french seams?
