How to Sew French Seams

French seams are a rather fancy way of creating a lovely, neat finish to your garment. What they do is enclose the unsightly raw edges of the fabric within a neatly stitched secret cavity, never to be seen again… or that’s how I like to think of them!

They work really nicely on light- to medium-weight fabric, but not so great on heavier fabrics where they'd create bulky seams. They’re particularly useful on sheer fabrics as they look less conspicuous than overlocked seams. The strength of the seam also makes them practical for clothing that’s going to go through the laundry a lot. Plus they just look awesome :)

You know how you usually stitch fabric right sides together? Well, with French seams you start by stitching the fabric wrong sides together. Sacré bleu! Intrigued? I'm going to show you a demo on the Mathilde blouse sewing pattern. Let’s go…

Start by placing the pieces you want to sew wrong sides together. Stitch the seam with a 5mm (1/4in) seam allowance, back tacking at each end.

If your fabric frays a lot, trim those pesky sticky-outy threads so they don't reveal themselves later.

Press as follows:

1) press flat to help set the stitches into the fabric;
2) press the seam allowances open;
3) fold the fabric right sides together around the stitching line and press along the fold.

Pin the pieces together along this fold.



Now stitch the fabric right sides together using a 10mm (3/8in) seam allowance, back tacking each end. The raw edges should be hidden away within the two lines of stitching.

Press the seam to one side. When sewing a bodice, seams are usually pressed towards the back. On the Mathilde blouse, press the yoke seam up rather than down to reduce bulk at the tucks.

Now admire your handy work – don’t those French seams look beautiful?

Want to give them a whirl? Sew French seams on our Mathilde blouse or Fifi PJs pattern.

Joining the Mathilde Blouse Bodice

Making the Mathilde blouse? The tucks - the trickiest part are now done. Hooray! Let's move on to sewing the bodice together...

But first let’s quickly talk seam finishes. You're welcome to sew the seams together the regular way (ie. right sides together) and finish the seam allowances using zigzag stitch or an overlocker (serger). I'd suggest you try French seams on this blouse, as they suit lightweight fabrics really nicely. I mention this now, because if you go with French seams you’ll be constructing the bodice in a slightly different way to “normal” sewing where you stitch right sides together with a regular seam allowance. Find out how to sew French seams.

Whichever method you go for, these are the bits you need to sew together next:

Sew the yoke to the front bodice and press the seam allowances up towards the yoke.

Sew the front bodice to the back bodice at the shoulders and the side seams, and press the seam allowances towards the back.

And that's it! The next step for the Mathilde blouse is to attach the neckline facing...

Stitching Darts

Darts are one of the methods used in garment sewing for shaping the fabric around the curves of the body, such as at the bust and waist. When stitching a dart, essentially what you're doing is folding and removing a triangle shape in order to give a flat piece of fabric a 3D form. Clever, non? Darts can be straight triangle shapes or slightly curved, single or double-ended.

I'm going to show you how to sew the most common darts - single and straight (don't read too much into that!) - using the Mathilde blouse as an example. Here we go...

Mark the dart lines - or "legs" - onto the wrong side of the fabric when cutting out the pattern (read more about marking and cutting fabric). As well as marking the legs, I also like to draw in the central line of the dart to make the next step easier...

Fold the fabric right sides together along the central line, so the dart legs are sitting on top of one another. Pin the dart legs together - if you stick the pins along the dart leg, rather than across it, you can check they are coming out the other side of the fabric exactly on the other dart leg, meaning the legs are aligned accurately. You'll be sewing from the raw edge of the fabric towards the tip, so place the pins the way I have in the photo above - this way you can pull them out by the head just before the needle reaches them.

Press the fold to neaten it.

Stitch the dart legs together, starting from the edge of the fabric moving towards the tip of the dart. It's tempting to go the other way, but if you do so there’s a good chance your thread will get all tangled up at the beginning.

You can back tack the stitching when starting from the edge, but don’t back tack the stitching at the tip or the thread will cause an unsightly lump! Instead, stitch off the edge of the fabric and cut the threads leaving enough so you can tie them together by hand into a tight double knot.

Press well! A bust dart should be pressed downwards, or if you’re working on a waistline dart press it towards the centre. If your fabric can handle it, you can use the steam in your iron to shape the point and create a nice, smoothly curved dart. A tailor’s ham - or substitute such as a rolled up towel - will help with shaping.



Et voila! Lovely, shapely darts.

Want more tips on sewing darts? Check out this post on five or six different ways of sewing darts.

Sewing Beautiful Tucks

I love tucks! These little stitched folds of fabric can make a garment look so pretty. The Mathilde blouse includes six rows of tucks draping down over the front bodice. In this post I'm going to show you how to sew them...

Tucks are constructed by stitching and pressing excess fabric to form folds. The pattern lines can seem a little confusing the first time you make tucks, but it’ll all make sense once you’ve done it once. Basically a tuck is formed as follows:

- The central line of each tuck ("tuck fold line") is folded, wrong sides together, to bring the excess fabric up.
- This brings the outer lines ("tuck stitching line") of the tuck together – these lines can then be sewn together.
- The tuck is then pressed to one side over the space between them.

They’re not the easiest thing to get right first time, so if you haven't made them before it's worth practising on some spare fabric before taking the plunge on your garment. The key to tucks that make your heart sing is to stitch the lines as straight as you can and keep the width of each tuck the same.

Here's the method I like to use...

Before you start sewing, mark the tuck lines onto the right side of the fabric. The way I like to do this is to mark the ends of the darts onto the fabric - just at the edges within the seam allowance - while the pattern is pinned to the fabric at the cutting stage. Then I remove the pattern and use a ruler to connect the lines with a sharp chalk pencil. (Do check your marking pencil/pen will come off your fabric first!) To avoid confusion, mark the fold lines and stitching lines differently, for example, with full vs. dashed lines.

Double check the tucks are spaced evenly - the gaps between the lines on the Mathilde blouse should be 15mm (5/8in). If your fabric is slippery - like mine is here - you may find that the lines look a bit wibbly. You could try stabilising it first with some spray starch. (Read more tips on sewing slippery fabric.)

To avoid the adjacent tucks getting in the way while you're working on them, I like to work on two at a time - one on the left side of the bodice and one on the right - before moving on to the next pair.

Fold along the middle ("fold line") of each tuck, bringing wrong sides of the fabric together. Press along the fold. (If your fabric is slippery, you could use a piece of card to press the folds neatly in place before stitching.) Pin directly along the stitching lines. That way you can check the pins are exactly aligned with the marking lines on both sides of fabric.

Sew along the stitching line, taking your time to keep the line as straight as you can. You can use the lines you drew on the fabric as well as the seam guide on your sewing machine to help keep your stitching as straight as possible.



Once you've pinned and stitched all the tucks, press them - if you're making the Mathilde Blouse, press the bodice tucks towards the bodice side seams, on both the right and wrong sides of the fabric.

Now staystitch across the top of each section of darts, 10mm (3/8in) from the raw edge. This will help hold them in place when you sew the seams so they don't fold back the wrong way.

And that's it! Lovely looking tucks.

Wanna try them out? Make the Mathilde blouse sewing pattern.