An awful lot of sewing involves joining two pieces of fabric with their edges neatly together, this is called a seam.

With short seams you can just lay the two edges on top of each other so they fit, and pin them together. Watch the video to see how I pin and why. You figure out for yourself what your prefer, I just find this a failproof way of joining pieces before sewing. I use long and sharp pins with flat heads so they don’t get caught and I could even out a ruler on top of it all should I need to draw any lines in.

Mark your stitch line, which here is actually your seam allowance, the distance you are sewing away from the edge. If you are following a sewing pattern it will always tell you what the seam allowance built in to the pattern is by the way.

Join your fabric pieces by stitching, taking care not to start at the very top edge, making sure to adhere to your seam allowance, and back stitching both at the beginning and at the end. Take the pins out as you go along, and ideally keep a pin cushion nearby to put them in.

If you are joining much longer or more complex pieces or even pieces that aren’t the same shape, then be methodical with your pinning.

• First you join seam lines together, notches if you have them (pattern marks telling you where things should fit together), and then the ends of the pieces.
• Then fit the rest of the pins in. You may need to gently stretch one piece a bit to make it fit the other piece between the pins already there. This is called easing and a perfectly normal part of sewing.

DO NOT EVER just start pinning at one end and hope for the best, it will not work and the pieces will not fit.

If you have fabric that is a bit unstructured or you have had to stretch one piece to make it fit the other then make sure the fabric is taut when going under the needle. If need be gently stretch it both in front of the needle and behind the needle, making sure the fabric is still being fed through at the correct pace. This will take a little practice, but it is worth taking your time here.

Finishing your seams:

Often in patterns it will tell you to now “finish your seams”. This means not just leaving them to start fraying. It is not always necessary to finish your seams, for example if your seams will be inside a cushion etc. But if your seams will be inside a dress say, you will need to do something to stop them fraying. Tis collectively is called “finishing”. Which technique you use is your own choice, and I will describe them below.

• Pinking shears. By far the quickest and my most favourite way to finish my seams is to use pinking shears to take a little edge off the seam allowance. Somehow magically the zigzagged edge doesn’t fray. Do make sure you use fabric pinking shears and not ones for kids to use on paper as they need to be sharp
• Overlocking. If you have an overlocker you can of course use this. It looks very professional and will definitley never fray again
• Zigzag stitch on your sewing machine. I never use this. It gobbles up thread and time and I don’t have a surplus of either. There may even be a stitch on your machine marked specially for finishing seams so feel free to try all the methods of course, I am too impatient to spend ages stitching the edges again.
• Also note which way your seams allowances need to be facing after pressing. If your seam needs to be pressed open you cannot overlock or zigzag the two edges together, but you must must do each edge separately. Especially when using an overlocker here you have to be very careful not to cut into the main body of the fabric!

Pressing your seams:

After stitching you are often asked or expected to press your seams. If following a pattern it will tell you which direction you are pressing your seams, if not, pressing them open looks amazing. Pressing by the way is using an iron to apply heat and pressure, which is a different from using an iron to get wrinkles out of freshly washed clothes.

To press a seam open lay it on your ironing board or pressing mat with the seam facing up, and use the tip of the iron to open the seam and then the rest of the iron to press the seam allowances down. I always gently pull at the fabric, stretching it ever so slightly at the seam so there is no danger of accidentally creating a pleat on the right side of the fabric.