Page:A complete course in dressmaking, (Vol. 1, Introduction) (IA completecoursein01cono).pdf/99

 SEAMS AND THEIR USES

Suit your seam to the material and the place. Thick materials need as flat a seam as possible. On the other hand, in thin goods it is often advantageous to give quite a different finish.

We have all heard the remark that a certain garment has a homemade look. It may be, too, that the garment is carefully and neatly made. It is not always the case, but very often the fault can be traced to seams. There is a thick seam where there ought to be a thin one and a tailored finish where there ought to be a delicately handrun seam. And so it goes. The garment isn’t well turned out.

Study your material and use the right seam.

Open Seams.—Where a flat finish is desired, press the edges of a plain seam open. See Fig. 46.

For instance, you would know at a glance that a heavy overcoating ought not to be stitched into a French seam. Four thicknesses of the goods would make a bulky unsightly ridge. However, if the two pieces of the overcoating are placed with the right sides of the goods together and stitched the length of the seam and the seam pressed open, the joining will hardly show.