My serger died. Not really sure what happened or when. It just quit working. I've had several "expert" friends look at it and they are all baffled. Bummer. Now I have to find a place who can look at it and repair it.

In the meantime, I had a couple of Carol Jane dresses to sew up. And serging the edges of your seams on garments are a must because it just gives it such a nice finish. What's a girl to do? I could zig zag stitch my seams. But I wanted them even cleaner than that. SO...remembering a bit about french seams I had used on Sprouts crib bedding - I decided that was the way to go.

Today, I'm going to share the method I used on this dress because the patchwork version I was working on has a lot of seams so this came in super handy! This dress is really cute alone or paired with a long sleeve t-shirt and jeans. It would make for a great back to school outfit! This is a method you can use in loads of garment patterns if you don't have a serger and want nice clean seams inside.

STEP ONE

Start by laying your fabrics WRONG SIDES FACING, pin and stitch 1/8" seam.

STEP TWO

Press your seam so that right sides are now facing. See in the photo above how we can see the raw edge of the seam is visible on the right side of the fabric and the clean edge is on the wrong side. Press along the seam line and pin. Now, stitch 1/4" seam to incase your raw edge of your seam.

STEP THREE

Now you can see how the raw edge is incased and now both our right side view and wrong side view are nice and clean. But, we have the seam sticking up on the wrong side which will not be comfortable. Press this seam to one side and then top stitch it down.

That's it. A bit more time consuming but the result is so worth it. Your seams are equally beautiful on the INSIDE of the garment as they are on the OUTSIDE. Are you inspired to give it a try?

Well, I'm getting ready to put my etsy shop on a short hiatus. So through this weekend, enter the coupon code, DogDays, and receive 30% off EVERYTHING in the shop. Patterns, including the Carol Jane dress, and finished items also included. After Monday morning, the shop will be closed for several weeks while I catch up on projects.