Sewing with Wool: Seam Finishes
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.
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.
Hello Dona,
Thank you for contacting us.
You’re right, the math is off. If using a 1/2″ seam allowance, you would need to trim 1/4″ off each piece, then lap the raw edge of one 1/2″ over the raw edge of the other for the seam to align correctly.
For a 5/8″ seam allowance, you’d need to trim 3/8″ off each piece, then lap one 1/2″ over the other, and the seam would align correctly.
Thank you for bringing this error to our attention. I’ll see what can be done about correcting this.
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Sincerely,
Sarah
National Sewing Circle Video Membership
None much the wiser – you can’t see what is being done because of the dark fabric and dark quality of the film.
Hello Janet!
Thank you for the feedback! I have sent your comment to the proper department so they can take a look at the video and make the necessary adjustments!
Sincerely,
Jessica
National Sewing Circle Video Membership
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?
We appreciate your feedback. We will forward your comment to the proper department.
Why would you think that 2 pieces of dark fabric would work when demonstrating a technique??? Worthless.
Thank you for your feedback. We have forwarded your comments to the proper department. Your comments are important to us and help with the development of our online video streaming community.
Very difficult to see…why use two pieces of dark fabric, surely using contrasting material would show better also no explanation of terms used,
Hi Joy. Thank you for your feedback. Your comments have been forwarded to the proper department. Your comments our important to us and help with the development of our online video streaming community.