What are seams?

In sewing, a seam is the join where two or more layers of fabric, leather, or other materials are held together with stitches.

Prior to the invention of the sewing machine, all sewing was done by hand. Seams in modern mass-produced household

textiles, sporting goods, and ready clothing are sewn by computerized machines, while

home shoemaking, dressmaking, quilting, crafts, haute couture and tailoring may use a combination of hand and machine

sewing.[1]

In clothing construction, seams are classified by their type (plain, lapped, abutted, or French seams []) and position in the

finished garment (center back seam, inseam, side seam). Seams are finished with a variety of techniques to prevent raveling

of raw fabric edges and to neaten the inside of garments.

All basics seams used in clothing construction are variants on four basic types of seams.

Plain seams French seams Flat or abutted seams Lapped seams

A plain seam is the most common type of machine-sewn seam. It joins two pieces of fabric together face-to-face by

sewing through both pieces, leaving a seam allowance with raw edges inside the work. The seam allowance usually

requires some sort of seam finish to prevent raveling.

In a French seam, the raw edges of the fabric are fully enclosed for a neat finish. The seam is first sewn with

wrong sides together, and then the seam allowances are trimmed and pressed. A second seam is sewn with

right sides together, enclosing the raw edges of the original seam.

In a flat or abutted seam, two pieces of fabric are joined edge-to edge with no overlap and sewn with hand

or machine stitching that encloses the raw edges. Antique or old German seam is the 19th century name for

a hand-sewn flat seam that joins two pieces of at their selvages. This type of construction is found in

traditional linen garments such as shirts and chemises, and in hand-made sheets pieced from

narrow loom widths of linen.

In a lapped seam, the two layers overlap with the wrong side of the top layer laid against the right side of the

lower layer. Lapped seams are typically used for bulky materials that do not ravel, such as leather and felt.

Finish Seams

Isn’t it always about the details? This thought particularly applies with sewing. Especially in the area of

finishing seams. Finished seams on any project prevents unraveling and makes the inside look much nicer.

Using serge is one of the best ways to get finished seams on a sewing project. What if you don’t own serge?

Well, there are many ways to Finish Seams without Serge.

Ankur Shukla

Apparel Production Management

THANK YOU.