3 Edge Finishing Techniques

How you finish the seams on a garment can make or break the quality.  Leaving raw edges on your garments can lead to unstable seams and fraying threads.  This can quickly diminish the life of your garment.  It's rare to find a garment from the store with unfinished seams.  Honestly, thinking back, I'm not sure I've ever seen a store bought garment with unfinished seams.  Below, I'm outlining three different edge finishing techniques to help increase the quality of your hand-made projects.

Pinking Shears

The pinking shear method is great for garments that don't have a lot of wear and tear.  Pinking shears are scissors with a zig-zag edge.  Think back to those fancy scissors you used in childhood to cut paper, except much sharper and they cut through fabric. The zig-zag edge made by pinking shears helps minimize fraying.  Lots of wash and wear can cause this method to fray though.  If you're finishing the edges prior to sewing, cut off as little fabric as possible so the garment sizing isn't affected.

Zig-Zag Stitch

This is probably the most cost effective method if your machine already does a zig-zag stitch, because you won't have to buy any new tools or fancy machine.  Simply switch your machine to a zig-zag stitch and stitch along the raw edge, leaving roughly 1-3 millimeters of space between the raw edge and the stitching line.  The stitching will keep the edge from fraying.

Serger

This is my favorite method of finishing edges.  For me, it's the quickest because of the speed of my serger.  This can be done either before or after the seam is sewn.  If you serge prior to sewing the seams, cut off as little fabric as possible so the garment sizing isn't affected.

Happy Sewing,