Plagiarism and pirating is BAD! BAD!! BAAAAAD!

But re-posting the entire content of a friend’s blog with total permission and also posting a link to her blog is Mmmmm, Mmmmm, GOOOOOOD!

So, my very good friend and fellow “Fashionista”, Stacie Davis, of the wonderful blog:  Stacie Thinks She Can, wrote up an extremely well presented tutorial on sewing accurate French Seams.  Yep, she did!  And she gave me permission to post it on the SewVac Blog for your viewing pleasure.

On the topic of my friend, Stacie, she also recently made a very beautiful quilt which you can see here:  The Awesome Quilt  Once you visit the link, you can scroll down and see how the quilt came together.

Anyway, behold!

French Seams the Stacie Way

by:  Stacie Davis

I have been working on the French seams in my Peony, and have developed a few methods that have helped me.  I thought I would share. I have been doing French seams on garments on and off for awhile, but this project has really made me look at ways to help myself out.

First of all French seams are seams you sew in which the raw edges are encased within the seam allowance. Very unnecessary, but they look nice and are pretty darn strong. Above is the inside of the French seam we are about to make.

Place your fabrics wrong sides together. Yes, it goes against everything you believe in, but trust me. “Wrong sides together,” is your chant when you are doing French seams.

Next I get out my 1/4″ presser foot. That’s right, it is used for more than my boring quilt posts!

Mathlete Moment: Remember 1/4 inch is also equivalent to 2/8 inch. 

When using a 1/4 inch presser foot you just follow the outside edge of the presser foot. Just stitch right down the seam.

Press the seam open.

Now fold it so it is right sides together. I usually like to press the seam again here to make sure it is lined up and not poofy.

Here is my seam allowance magnet. I use it for all garments. I get distracted and tend to start following the foot instead of the usual 5/8″ seam allowance. This sticks to my machine and my fabric can follow it instead of the tiny markings that come on the machine.

I lined up my magnet to the 3/8″ mark on my machine.

Here you just line up the fabric with the magnet and stitch.

Mathlete Moment: Your first seam was 2/8 inch, your second seam was 3/8 inch.


2/8 + 3/8 = 5/8


We made a 5/8 inch seam allowance!

Press your seam to the side.

Now look at what you did! Your seam is perfect from the outside and pretty on the inside! That 1/4″ foot and magnet totally helped you be more accurate.

As for the Peony, I’m working on it.  Will share soon!

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Dear Stacie,

You did a great job lady and we all thank you for allowing your tutorial to be shared here!

Dear Readers,

Don’t forget, we are having a gift give away and the drawing is on March 2nd.  It’s not to late to add your name to the list. For more info. or to enter to win just visit:   Gift Give-Away

Once again, thanks for reading and thanks to Stacie for a great tutorial on French Seams!

Bye 4 now!

Jenny Gabriel – alter ego:  StitchinJenny