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Sunday, September 21, 2014

My Husband's Shirt: Flat Fell Seam on Sleeve

Finished shirt!

In the men's shirt making course I took in the Fall of 2012 at FIT, I learned a flat fell seam treatment I had never heard of before which I will detail below.  The sleeve for a man's shirt is installed flat, not in the round.  So once the sleeve cap is attached to the garment, you must sew the garment side seam and sleeve seam. You start sewing this seam from the bottom/hem part of the shirt up all the way through to the sleeves.  The trick is how to sew a flat fell seam in a sleeve which will now be closed.  Seam allowances are 1/2 inch.

1.  At the underarm area, fold up toward the right side 1/4 inch and place 3 pins.  Press in between the pins.  Remove the pins.  This is just to give you a little more control and precision in this area.  For the rest of the shirt edge, you can just fold under at the sewing machine 1/4 inch using a 1/4 inch foot as a guide as you edgestitch along the fold.  IMPORTANT:  You will do this only for the back, not the front.


2.  Pin the back to the front right sides together abutting the edge of the front side of the shirt to the raw edge of the back side of the shirt where you had folded up the 1/4 inch seam:


3.  Sew together 1/4 inch away from where the raw edges meet.  It is easy to do with a 1/4 inch presser foot:


4.  Press enclosing the raw edges.  This is the wrong side of the garment:



5.  Turn to the right side.  Press on the right side as well to make sure the seam is nice and flat.  You sew from the right side because it is important that the outside topstitching be perfectly straight since it will be visible.  Start sewing from the bottom/hem part of the garment with the edge of the presser foot  1/8 inch away from the seam line.  In effect, you will be sewing 3/8 inch away from the seam line:


6.  Here's the tricky part.  You must continue doing this all the way into the sleeve which you had closed and made into a tubular shape in Step 3!!  The way you do this is you bunch up the fabric in your hands and then sew 1 to 2 inches at a time.  As you sew, you will get more of a nest shape around the foot as the machine is pushing the sleeve fabric to the back.  I think of it as a nest on which I must sew only on the bottom flat part:



A problem you may run into with the final result, especially when you do it the first time, is that the sleeve flat fell seam on the right side might end up with unattractive ripples as you can see below from my first shirt.  You can avoid this result by using Steam-A-Seam in Step 4.  My professor did not tell us to do this.  That's just my fix!



Here is what the wrong side of the seam looks like.  You can see that 3 rows of stitching are visible:



Below is the right side of the sleeve which, after all, is what counts.  It does look pretty good!


Sewing books and pattern instructions have you trim the inside seam to 1/8 inch for a flat fell seam.  The beauty with the method described in this post is that there is no trimming involved.  The seam is stronger and more durable because you have a full 1/4 inch seam inside.  On the other hand, the topstitching on the outside is 3/8 wide and you may prefer the 1/4 inch topstitching often seen in jackets, jeans and many other garments which you obtain by using the more widely known method described in the sewing books.  Also, the more common flat fell seam produces a seam that can be used on either side.

However, there is no right or wrong way.  There is frequently more than one way to do things in sewing and I believe that knowing more than one way of doing something is good to have in your sewing arsenal.  When you sew your own garments, you have the freedom to choose which technique you like best for the particular garment you want to create.

Happy Sewing!

35 comments:

  1. Pretty good? Give yourself more credit--it looks great! Your shirt looks very RTW. I agree, like with many things in life, there is more than one way to do things. Just try the different methods and then use what works best for you.

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  2. That shirt looks awesome! I'm bookmarking your post - may have to try this method!

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    1. Thanks so much Virginie! I am happy to know you find the post useful enough to bookmark!

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  3. Wow! I was sewing a shirt for my husband (his birthday is the sept 19th) and my head was exploding trying to sew the sleeves…Next time I'll do this. Thanks!!!!

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    1. Thank you Raquel! I hope this post will help eliminate any headaches down the road!

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  4. Looks great! I love the look of a flat felled seam.

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  5. Very clever! Thanks so much for sharing, Tomasa. The shirt is beautifully stitched.

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  6. This is fantastic! The quality of this garment is evident in all your meticulous work. Love this. I wish I had the courage to make my husband's shirts, when I do, I will follow your lead.

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    1. Thanks so much Bianca! I am sure you will do a fantastic job when you decide to make a shirt for your husband!

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  7. Your sewing skills are incredible on this handsome shirt ~ thanks for sharing your inner sewing tips ... J

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  8. Great Work Girl! Came Out So Good!!!

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  9. The thought of flat-felling a sleeve seam is so daunting! Thank you for the clear photos!

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    1. You are welcome! It's really not bad at all. I know that once you try it, you will be zipping out 10 shirts a week!

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  10. Thank you for this article. I sure wish there was a youtube video out there demonstrating this technique!

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    1. Maybe one of these days I will do a Youtube video on this technique but since I have never done anything like that before, it may take me some time to come up with the courage to do so! I also need to find someone with equipment decent enough to produce clear images. Or maybe somebody will beat me to it...

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  11. Hello Tomasa, I've only flat felled a short-sleeve shirt and a loose pyjama jacket, but I'm hoping to tackle a traditional shirt soon. Thanks for the tutorial. What model of Bernina do you have? Looks like it sews a nice straight stitch. Cheers, Sarah

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    1. Thank you kushami. I have a Bernina Active 240. It is one of the old basic models which are no longer being made but it's a workhorse and I am very happy with it.

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  12. My brain is having a hard time with this; how does it not make the back seam 3/4" and the front 1/4"? Thank you.

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    1. The back is folded up 1/4 inch. The front raw edge is abutted next to the raw edge of the back. Then you sew the front 1/4 away from the raw edge. 1/4 + 1/4 = the 1/2 inch seam allowance. Hope that is a better explanation. Something I do when I get stuck on a technique is try it on a scrap of fabric. Perhaps that would be helpful. I know thinking about sewing sometimes is like doing mental gymnastics!

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  14. Thank you for a very clear tutorial! I'm going to try it on the shirt I'm working on now, one question: did you use the same method for the armscye?

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