Seams

Today we're going to work on a basic seam.

First you need to start with your two pieces of fabric, right sides together.



Pin this edge every couple inches.  It can be tempting to skip this step, but the more I sew, the more I pin!  Unpinned fabric can shift while you're sewing, causing an uneven finished seam.  Placing your pins perpendicular to the seam and back a bit allows you to sew without having to stop to remove the pins.








Now, place the fabric under the presser foot with the edge along the guideline.  Here is where we talk about seam allowance.  Seam allowance refers to the distance from the edge of the fabric to the seam.  The standard seam allowance for clothing is 5/8".  This allows a little room for fraying as you wear the garment.  The standard for quilting is 1/4".











Don't forget to backstitch to begin and end your seams.









As you sew, try to keep your edge lined up with the 5/8" mark (or whatever seam allowance you are using).  I have found that for beginners and young sew-ers, a piece of masking tape really helps to keep you lined up where you need to be.  Remember, SLOW and STEADY.  You can speed up as you gain experience, but it takes a whole lot longer to go back and rip stitches because you messed up than to take your time in the first place!
Don't force the fabric.  All you have to do is keep it smooth and straight -- the feed dogs will control the speed that the fabric feeds through.  If you pull on it, you'll end up with an uneven seam.

Good job!  Just trim the threads and there's your seam.










Now, for the iron.  If I had to choose one thing that makes the biggest difference between a professional looking finished product and a sloppy "homemade" look, this would be it.  It may seem like a waste of time, but don't skip this step!  When working on any project, press each seam as you go.
There is a right way to press.  It involves 3 steps.

 Step 1.  Press the seam as you sewed it.  This locks the stitches in place

Step 2.  Press the seam on the wrong side.  The seam can be pressed open or to one side.

Step 3.  Press the seam on the right side.  You should have a nice, crisp, professional looking seam.

 

Now we need to finish the edge.  With quilting the raw edge is left alone, because later it will be quilted over.  With other projects, however, we need to do something with this edge to keep it from fraying and looking messy (and possibly coming apart!) .  We'll cover several methods in the next post.