Sewing with Wool: Seam Finishes
Nicki LaFoilleDescription
Wool is a great fabric to use for projects like pillows, blankets and other home decor. It can also be used to create wonderful garments and outerwear, however it can tend to have rather bulky seams. Nicki LaFoille shows you some easy seam finishes to use on your next project that reduce bulk when sewing with wool.
Lap Seam
A lap seam is a great seam finishing technique to use when sewing with wool because wool tends not to ravel. Nicki demonstrates the seam finish and explains how to make the seam stronger with a second line of stitching. A lap seam is not only good for sewing with wool, but is also great when sewing fleece and other thick, non-raveling fabrics.
Welt Seam
Another great seam finishing technique to use when sewing with wool is a welt seam. This technique creates a very strong seam because it utilizes two lines of stitching, much like the welt seam. Nicki also shows how it creates a slightly raised edge along the seam, which can be a great decorative element to outerwear like jackets.
Finishing While Stitching
If you know ahead of time that you will be sewing with a bulky fabric like wool and want to finish the seams, the lap seam is great for finishing while stitching the project. As demonstrated in the video, one fabric is lapped over the other by ½”. This means that if you are using a different seam allowance on your project you will need to adjust the amount that is lapped over. Also, because the fabric is lapped over one another and then stitched, rather than stitched with right sides together, it’s best to make the decision to use the lap seam finishing method before you start a project and use it throughout so every seam matches.
If you complete a project and then decide that the seams should be finished, you can still add the welt seam finish to your project, however it may be easier to finish each seam immediately after you stitch it no matter which seam finishing technique you use.
Seam Finishes
Whether you are sewing fabrics like cotton that need to be finished because they can ravel, or sewing with wool or fleece that have bulky seams, or even sewing silk that can also tends to ravel; using the right seam finishing technique can give your project a professional look and ensure your seams hold up.
Many wool fabrics are thick, which can be a problem when stitching garments because you don't want the bulk of those seam allowances showing in your garment. So I'm going to talk about a couple of seaming techniques to reduce bulk in your garments, or any other project. The first seam is called the lap seam. So you're going to take your pieces and you're literally just going to lap them one over the other. And one of your pieces is going to have a raw edge showing on the right side. So on that piece that is going to have the raw edge on the right side, you're going to trim a quarter inch off of the seam allowance, and then you're going to mark your stitching line a half inch in. I'm just going to eyeball it. Then you're going to lap the other piece right over that line. And then, with the right side facing up, we're going to edge stitch this raw edge. And since a lot of wool fabrics are so densely woven and fold to some extent, this raw edge isn't going to fray. You use an edge stitching foot here for nice even lines. And you could just stitch your seam once, has a more of an organic feel, or can turn it over and edge stitch your other raw edge as well. And that makes a really nice strong seam, since it's stitched twice, and it gives a sportier look on the right side. So you have two lines of top stitching showing. So that's what your right side would look like. And the next seaming technique is called the welt seam. So with the right sides together, you're just going to stitch your fabric pieces using your 5/8 inch seam allowance. And you're going to press your seam allowances toward one side. And if you're making a garment, you want to give some thought to what side you're pressing toward, because that side is going to have an extra line of top stitching on it. You're going to trim your lower seam allowance to a quarter to an eighth of an inch. And then, so this is pressed toward this side, we're just going to edge stitch this raw edge. This is another good, strong seam, stitched twice, and since you're encasing that trimmed seam allowance in the seam finish, it actually gives sort of this raised look which is beautiful on wool pea coats and other outerwear. So those are two seaming techniques to reduce bulk in your garments.
Material too dark in colour to see but, what I could see was noted.
Your demo would be useful if lighter coloured fabric were used to facilitate better visual clarity
The material the tutor was using was too dark - I could not make out the look she achieved. I could only see the light coloured thread she used. This sort of thing is why I will not join as tutorial was a failure.
41345 The math is off here. Taking ¼ inch off one side, then lapping the fabrics by ½ inch means you will not have the correct width of fabric. Even if you take ¼ inch off both seam allowances, you will still end up with a larger piece than called for. To make a ½ inch lap seam come out correctly you must remove ⅜ inch strip from EACH seam allowance.
None much the wiser - you can't see what is being done because of the dark fabric and dark quality of the film.
Hi, have you considered redoing this video with a light coloured wool material and contrasting thread?
Same as Joy. Using dark material is just dump. Cheerio Karin
Have you considered using contrasting thread for better visibility?
Why would you think that 2 pieces of dark fabric would work when demonstrating a technique??? Worthless.
Very difficult to see...why use two pieces of dark fabric, surely using contrasting material would show better also no explanation of terms used,