Introduction to Seam Finishes

The type of seam finish that you choose to use will depend on the type of fabric and the type of garment that you are making. Is the fabric a stable woven fabric like a cotton poplin, or is it something that's slightly looser woven like a viscose, something that is prone to fraying over time? Is it a sheer fabric, or is it something that's a bit bulkier and heavier weight like a denim? Is the garment lined or is it unlined? Is it a casual everyday wear or something more formal that maybe won't get worn and washed quite as often as something a bit more casual?

These are all questions that are important to think about when you are deciding on the type of seam finish you want to sew. In the following videos, I'm going to show you a few different seam finishes that you can sew using your regular sewing machine. Of course, there are a lot of instances where you can use an overlocker or a serger, but there might be times when you want to consider something a little bit different. So why is it so important to finish our seams correctly? Well, let's take a look at a couple of different fabrics that I have here that have been finished in two different ways.

I have a stable woven cotton here, and this one is a viscose. One of the simplest ways that you can finish your seams is using pinking shears. These are scissors that have a zigzag or serrated edge, and you will trim down that seam allowance. So once you've sewn the seam, the raw seam allowance is what you'll trim down with your pinking scissors. Now, you can see here on the woven fabric, this has worked really well. There's a tiny little bit of fraying.

What happens is that zigzag cuts diagonally across the fabric. It cuts on the bias, so that helps to stop the fabric from fraying. It works really well on a stable woven like a cotton, but as you can see on the viscose, it doesn't work quite so well. We have got a lot of fraying. You can't even see the zigzags anymore, and there are points where that fraying has gone almost right down to the stitching line. One or two more washes and you're gonna end up with holes in your garment.

On these fabrics, I have sewn the seam and then have sewn the raw edges together with a simple zigzag stitch. Again, that zigzag, it goes across the bias of the fabric and can help to prevent fraying, but you can see here it's not perfect. This cotton has frayed a little bit, so what I've done is I have sewn these and then put them in the wash. You can see that we have some fraying here. This will over time fray right down to that zigzag stitching.

It has worked better on the cotton than it has on the viscose. You can see we have a bit of a mess. The zigzag has stopped the fraying going past the zigzag stitching up to the seam line, but it just doesn't look very nice. It's still pretty messy. Using pinking shears or a zigzag stitch to finish your seams would be okay in something stable like a cotton, a denim, or a canvas, perhaps something that's not gonna get worn or washed too often like a lined jacket or perhaps a bag, something that's not gonna get washed a lot.
But there are lots of other seam finish options that we can take a look at for prolonging the life of your garment.