On Mon, 2 Jun 2008 16:27:14 -0700 (PDT), Brenna23
wrote:

Anyways, what are some good ways to bind the seams or
cover them so that they aren't exposed on the inside?

Seams in non-fraying fabrics often don't need covering.

Pinking may be sufficient.

I use pre-graded flat-fell seams a lot.
http://roughsewing.home.comcast.net/...T/ROUGH009.TXT
Use "find" to jump down to "An easier way to make a flat-felled
seam:". If your browser mushes everything into one paragraph, click
"view source".

(Looks as though this file needs a thorough editing as soon as I'm
done with "bags".)

French seams are good on fine fabrics, and places where you don't mind
a ridge inside the garment. Very narrow french seams are often used
on sheer fabrics.

On thick, heavy fabrics, a hong-kong binding is good. I've used it
only on things that are afterward sewn down -- for the top layer of
the mock-felled seams in my wool pants, for example -- but I first
heard of it as a finish for seams that are pressed open.

You take a strip of plain bias tape with no folds pressed in -- though
I wouldn't bother to iron the folds out of commercial tape. (Well I
don't *think* I would; I haven't used commercial tape in twenty or
thirty years.)

Match one raw edge of the tape to the edge to be finished and sew a
quarter inch from the edge. Make a narrower seam if you want a
daintier finish, a wider one if the fabric is very thick. Wrap the
tape over the edge to the back, then stitch in the ditch to make it
stay wrapped.

I'm now making a purse where I simply ran a line of straight stitching
near each raw edge before sewing the purse together. Most of these
edges were torn, so I get a fringed effect.

I've heard of turning under a quarter inch of the raw edge, then
straight-stitching to make it stay folded, but this strikes me as
clumsy, and I've never done it.

If the edge is to be cut along a drawn thread, you can zig-zag before
cutting for a very neat and flat finish. Let the zigs pierce the
fabric and the zags fall into the space where the thread has been
withdrawn.

Joy Beeson
--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://roughsewing.home.comcast.net/ -- sewing
http://n3f.home.comcast.net/ -- Writers' Exchange
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