How to Sew a French Seam Steps
- Place the wrong sides of the fabric together, which is the opposite of a plain seam where the right sides are together.
- First stitch a 3/8 inch seam allowance. Start with a few stitches, backstitch to lock it in place, and then continue stitching. At the end of the stitch, backstitch, raise the needle, pull the fabric away, and trim the excess thread.
- Trim the seam allowance close to the edge, about 1/4 inch away from your stitching, to remove excess fabric.
- Fold and press the fabric so that the wrong sides are facing out and press the seam flat.
- Place the fabric under the presser foot, ensuring the seam encases the raw edges. Stitch approximately 3/8 inch from the folded edge, backstitching at the beginning and end. Keep the stitching close to the trimmed edges without letting them show on the right side of the fabric.
- Open the fabric and do a final press the seam to one side, using the appropriate heat and pressure settings for your fabric.
French Seam Tips:
- French seams are excellent for finishing raw edges, but they can be tricky on curves.
- Always ensure the seam is fully encased to prevent unraveling.
Happy sewing!
How to Sew a French Seam Video Transcript
In this sewing tutorial we’re going to learn how to sew a French seam. This is a great seam that finishes all the raw edges of the fabric.
To start this seam, we’re going to go ahead and place the wrong sides of the fabric together. This is different than the plain seam where the right sides of the fabric are together. then we’re going to stitch a 3/8 inch seam allowance. That’s between the quarter mark and the half inch mark. We’ll stitch a little bit and then we’ll press the reverse lever and back stitch, then we’ll continue stitching down at 3/8 of an inch. If you adjust your pattern you can stitch at a quarter of an inch but that can be difficult on some fabrics so here we’re stitching at 3/8 of an inch.
Then at the end, back stitch, raise your needle, and then pull your fabric away, and trim the excess thread. Now what we need to do is trim close to the edge of our stitching. So we’ll trim a quarter inch away from the stitching. Use your scissors and cut in a straight line one quarter inch away from the stitching and discard the excess fabric.
Then we’ll wrap this around so we can see the wrong sides. We’ll press this down flat. Now that we have it folded under and we can feel the edge of the seam we’ll go ahead and place it under the presser foot. You can see here that this will encase the raw edges of the fabric. Feel with your finger and then make sure your needle is to one side of that. It should be approximately 3/8 of an inch. Go ahead and begin stitching. Stitch a little bit, then reverse to back stitch to lock the stitching in place and then make sure that you go as close as possible to those cut edges. Stay straight but don’t let any of them go past your stitching, otherwise it will be revealed on the right side of the fabric. Trim your thread and now when we fold this open we can see we have a nice finished seam on this side and then all of the raw edges of the fabric are encased and they won’t unravel.
This is a great seam finish and is very simple to do although it is difficult to do on curves. Once you’re done you can go ahead and press it to one side with an iron. Here I’m pressing it over to the right. Use heat and pressure settings that are appropriate for the fabric you’re using. And now you know how to sew a French seam with your sewing machine. Happy sewing!