Seam (sewing)
Encyclopedia
In sewing
, a seam is the join where two or more layers of fabric
, leather
, or other materials are held together with stitches
. Prior to the invention of the sewing machine
, all sewing was done by hand. Seams in modern mass-produced household textiles, sporting goods, and ready-to-wear
clothing are sewn by computer
ized machines, while home shoemaking
, dressmaking, quilting
, craft
s, haute couture
and tailor
ing may use a combination of hand and machine sewing.
In clothing
construction, seams are classified by their type (plain, lapped, abutted, or French seams) and position in the finished garment (center back seam, inseam, side seam). Seams are finished with a variety of techniques to prevent raveling of raw fabric edges and to neaten the inside of garments.
A plain seam is the most common sort of machine-sewn
seam. It joins two pieces of fabric together face-to-face by sewing through both pieces, leaving a seam allowance
with raw edges inside the work. The seam allowance usually requires some sort of seam finish to prevent raveling.
Either piping
or cording may be inserted into a plain seam.
In a French seam, the raw edges of the fabric are fully enclosed for a neat finish. The seam is first sewn with wrong sides together, then the seam allowances are trimmed and pressed. A second seam is sewn with right sides together, enclosing the raw edges of the original seam allowances.
In a flat or abutted seam, two pieces of fabric are joined edge-to edge with no overlap and sewn with hand or machine stitching that encloses the raw edges. Antique or old German seam is the 19th century name for a hand-sewn flat seam that joins two pieces of at their selvage
s. This type of construction is found in traditional linen garments such as shirt
s and chemise
s, and in hand-made sheets pieced from narrow loom
widths of linen.
In a lapped seam, the two layers overlap with the wrong side of the top layer laid against the right side of the lower layer. Lapped seams are typically used for bulky materials that do not ravel, such as leather and felt.
.
On mass-produced clothing, the seam allowances of plain seams are usually trimmed and stitched together with an overlock stitch using a serger. Plain seams may also be pressed open, with each seam allowance separately secured with an overlock stitch. Traditional home sewing techniques for finishing plain seams include trimming with pinking shears
, oversewing with a zig-zag stitch, and hand or machine overcasting.
A bound seam has each of the raw edges of its seam allowances enclosed in a strip of fabric, lace or net 'binding' that has been folded in half lengthwise. An example of binding is double-fold bias tape
. The binding's fold is wrapped around the raw edge of the seam allowance and is stitched, through all thicknesses, catching underside of binding in stitching.
Bound seams a often used on lightweight fabrics including silk
and chiffon
and on unlined
garments to produce a neat finish.
A Hong Kong seam or Hong Kong finish is a home sewing term for a type of bound seam in which each raw edge of the seam allowance is separately encased in a fabric binding. In couture
sewing or tailor
ing, the binding is usually a bias
-cut strip of lightweight lining
fabric; in home sewing, commercial bias tape
is often used.
In a Hong Kong finish, a bias strip of fabric is cut to the width of the seam allowance plus 1/4". The bias strip is placed on top of the seam allowance, right sides together, and stitched 1/8" from raw edges. The bias strip is then folded over the raw edge and around to the underside and stitched in place.
A center front seam runs vertically down the front of a garment.
A center back seam or back seam runs vertically down the center-back of a garment. It can be used to create anatomical shaping to the back portion of a garment particularly through the waist area and hips. It can also be used for styling and functional purposes involving pleat
s, vents, flare toward the hem or for back closure
s such as buttoned placket
s or zipper
s.
A side seam runs vertically down the side of a garment.
A side-back seam runs from the armscye
to the waist, and fits the garment to the curve below the shoulder blades. Side-back seams may be used instead of, or in combination with, side and center back seams.
A shoulder seam runs from the neckline to the armscye, usually at the highest point of the shoulder.
A princess seam in the front or back runs from the shoulder or armscye to the hem at the side-back or side-front. Princess seams shape the garment to the body's curves and eliminate the need for darting at the bust, waist, and shoulder.
An inseam is the seam that binds the length of the inner trouser
leg. The distance from the bottom crotch to the lower ankle is also known as the inseam. The inseam length determines the length of the inner pant leg to appropriately fit the wearer. In the UK this is usually known as the inside-leg measurement (for trousers fit).
Sewing
Sewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with a needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic era...
, a seam is the join where two or more layers of fabric
Textile
A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...
, leather
Leather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...
, or other materials are held together with stitches
Stitch (textile arts)
In the textile arts, a stitch is a single turn or loop of thread or yarn. Stitches are the fundamental elements of sewing, knitting, embroidery, crochet, and needle lace-making, whether by hand or machine...
. Prior to the invention of the sewing machine
Sewing machine
A sewing machine is a textile machine used to stitch fabric, cards and other material together with thread. Sewing machines were invented during the first Industrial Revolution to decrease the amount of manual sewing work performed in clothing companies...
, all sewing was done by hand. Seams in modern mass-produced household textiles, sporting goods, and ready-to-wear
Ready-to-wear
Ready-to-wear or prêt-à-porter is the term for factory-made clothing, sold in finished condition, in standardized sizes, as distinct from made to measure or bespoke clothing tailored to a particular person's frame. Off-the-peg is sometimes used for items which are not clothing.Ready-to-wear has...
clothing are sewn by computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
ized machines, while home shoemaking
Shoemaking
Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand. Traditional handicraft shoemaking has now been largely superseded in volume of shoes produced by industrial mass production of footwear, but not necessarily in quality, attention to detail, or...
, dressmaking, quilting
Quilting
Quilting is a sewing method done to join two or more layers of material together to make a thicker padded material. A quilter is the name given to someone who works at quilting. Quilting can be done by hand, by sewing machine, or by a specialist longarm quilting system.The process of quilting uses...
, craft
Craft
A craft is a branch of a profession that requires some particular kind of skilled work. In historical sense, particularly as pertinent to the Medieval history and earlier, the term is usually applied towards people occupied in small-scale production of goods.-Development from the past until...
s, haute couture
Haute couture
Haute couture refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing. Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable seamstresses,...
and tailor
Tailor
A tailor is a person who makes, repairs, or alters clothing professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers,...
ing may use a combination of hand and machine sewing.
In clothing
Clothing
Clothing refers to any covering for the human body that is worn. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic and is a feature of nearly all human societies...
construction, seams are classified by their type (plain, lapped, abutted, or French seams) and position in the finished garment (center back seam, inseam, side seam). Seams are finished with a variety of techniques to prevent raveling of raw fabric edges and to neaten the inside of garments.
Types
All basics seams used in clothing construction are variants on four basic types of seams:- Plain seams
- French seams
- Flat or abutted seams
- Lapped seams
A plain seam is the most common sort of machine-sewn
Sewing machine
A sewing machine is a textile machine used to stitch fabric, cards and other material together with thread. Sewing machines were invented during the first Industrial Revolution to decrease the amount of manual sewing work performed in clothing companies...
seam. It joins two pieces of fabric together face-to-face by sewing through both pieces, leaving a seam allowance
Seam allowance
Seam allowance is the area between the edge and the stitching line on two pieces of material being stitched together. Seam allowances can range from 1/4 inch wide to as much as several inches. Commercial patterns for home sewers have seam allowances ranging from 1/4 inch to 5/8 inch.Sewing...
with raw edges inside the work. The seam allowance usually requires some sort of seam finish to prevent raveling.
Either piping
Piping (sewing)
In sewing, piping is a type of trim or embellishment consisting of a strip of folded fabric inserted into a seam to define the edges or style lines of a garment or other textile object. Usually the fabric strip is cut on the bias, and often it is folded over a cord...
or cording may be inserted into a plain seam.
In a French seam, the raw edges of the fabric are fully enclosed for a neat finish. The seam is first sewn with wrong sides together, then the seam allowances are trimmed and pressed. A second seam is sewn with right sides together, enclosing the raw edges of the original seam allowances.
In a flat or abutted seam, two pieces of fabric are joined edge-to edge with no overlap and sewn with hand or machine stitching that encloses the raw edges. Antique or old German seam is the 19th century name for a hand-sewn flat seam that joins two pieces of at their selvage
Selvage
The selvage or selvedge is the term for the self-finished edges of fabric. The selvages keep the fabric from unraveling or fraying. The selvages are a result of how the fabric is created...
s. This type of construction is found in traditional linen garments such as shirt
Shirt
A shirt is a cloth garment for the upper body. Originally an undergarment worn exclusively by men, it has become, in American English, a catch-all term for almost any garment other than outerwear such as sweaters, coats, jackets, or undergarments such as bras, vests or base layers...
s and chemise
Chemise
The term chemise or shift can refer to the classic smock, or else can refer to certain modern types of women's undergarments and dresses...
s, and in hand-made sheets pieced from narrow loom
Loom
A loom is a device used to weave cloth. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads...
widths of linen.
In a lapped seam, the two layers overlap with the wrong side of the top layer laid against the right side of the lower layer. Lapped seams are typically used for bulky materials that do not ravel, such as leather and felt.
Finishes
A seam finish is a treatment that secures and neatens the raw edges of a plain seam to prevent ravelling, by sewing over the raw edges or enclosing them in some sort of bindingBinding (sewing)
In sewing, binding is used as both a noun and a verb to refer to finishing a seam or hem of a garment, usually by rolling or pressing then stitching on an edging or trim ....
.
On mass-produced clothing, the seam allowances of plain seams are usually trimmed and stitched together with an overlock stitch using a serger. Plain seams may also be pressed open, with each seam allowance separately secured with an overlock stitch. Traditional home sewing techniques for finishing plain seams include trimming with pinking shears
Pinking shears
Pinking shears are scissors, the blades of which are sawtoothed instead of straight. They leave a zigzag pattern instead of a straight edge.Pinking shears have a utilitarian function for cutting woven cloth. Cloth edges that are unfinished will easily fray, the weave becoming undone and threads...
, oversewing with a zig-zag stitch, and hand or machine overcasting.
A bound seam has each of the raw edges of its seam allowances enclosed in a strip of fabric, lace or net 'binding' that has been folded in half lengthwise. An example of binding is double-fold bias tape
Bias tape
Bias tape or bias binding is a narrow strip of fabric, cut on the bias . The strip's fibers, being at 45 degrees to the length of the strip, makes it stretchier as well as more fluid and more drapeable compared to a strip that is cut on the grain...
. The binding's fold is wrapped around the raw edge of the seam allowance and is stitched, through all thicknesses, catching underside of binding in stitching.
Bound seams a often used on lightweight fabrics including silk
Silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
and chiffon
Chiffon (fabric)
Chiffon, , from the French word for a cloth or rag, is a lightweight, balanced plain-woven sheer fabric woven of alternate S- and Z-twist crepe yarns. The twist in the crepe yarns puckers the fabric slightly in both directions after weaving, giving it some stretch and a slightly rough...
and on unlined
Lining (sewing)
In sewing and tailoring, a lining is an inner layer of fabric, fur, or other material inserted into clothing, hats, luggage, curtains, handbags and similar items....
garments to produce a neat finish.
A Hong Kong seam or Hong Kong finish is a home sewing term for a type of bound seam in which each raw edge of the seam allowance is separately encased in a fabric binding. In couture
Haute couture
Haute couture refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing. Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable seamstresses,...
sewing or tailor
Tailor
A tailor is a person who makes, repairs, or alters clothing professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers,...
ing, the binding is usually a bias
Bias (textile)
The bias or cross-grain direction of a piece of woven fabric, usually referred to simply as "the bias" or "the cross-grain", is at 45 degrees to its warp and weft threads. Every piece of woven fabric has two biases, perpendicular to each other...
-cut strip of lightweight lining
Lining (sewing)
In sewing and tailoring, a lining is an inner layer of fabric, fur, or other material inserted into clothing, hats, luggage, curtains, handbags and similar items....
fabric; in home sewing, commercial bias tape
Bias tape
Bias tape or bias binding is a narrow strip of fabric, cut on the bias . The strip's fibers, being at 45 degrees to the length of the strip, makes it stretchier as well as more fluid and more drapeable compared to a strip that is cut on the grain...
is often used.
In a Hong Kong finish, a bias strip of fabric is cut to the width of the seam allowance plus 1/4". The bias strip is placed on top of the seam allowance, right sides together, and stitched 1/8" from raw edges. The bias strip is then folded over the raw edge and around to the underside and stitched in place.
Position
In clothing construction, seams are identified by their position in the finished garment.A center front seam runs vertically down the front of a garment.
A center back seam or back seam runs vertically down the center-back of a garment. It can be used to create anatomical shaping to the back portion of a garment particularly through the waist area and hips. It can also be used for styling and functional purposes involving pleat
Pleat
A pleat is a type of fold formed by doubling fabric back upon itself and securing it in place. It is commonly used in clothing and upholstery to gather a wide piece of fabric to a narrower circumference....
s, vents, flare toward the hem or for back closure
Back closure
A back closure is a means for fastening a garment at the rear, such as with a zipper, hooks-and-eyes or buttons. Back closures were once common on Western female clothing, but have recently become less so, especially on female casual and business attire...
s such as buttoned placket
Placket
A placket is an opening in the upper part of trousers or skirts, or at the neck or sleeve of a garment. Plackets are almost always used to allow clothing to be put on or removed easily, but are sometimes used purely as a design element...
s or zipper
Zipper
A zipper is a commonly used device for temporarily joining two edges of fabric...
s.
A side seam runs vertically down the side of a garment.
A side-back seam runs from the armscye
Armscye
In sewing, the armscye is the armhole, the fabric edge to which the sleeve is sewn. The length of the armscye is the total length of this edge; the width is the distance across the hole at the widest point....
to the waist, and fits the garment to the curve below the shoulder blades. Side-back seams may be used instead of, or in combination with, side and center back seams.
A shoulder seam runs from the neckline to the armscye, usually at the highest point of the shoulder.
A princess seam in the front or back runs from the shoulder or armscye to the hem at the side-back or side-front. Princess seams shape the garment to the body's curves and eliminate the need for darting at the bust, waist, and shoulder.
An inseam is the seam that binds the length of the inner trouser
Trousers
Trousers are an item of clothing worn on the lower part of the body from the waist to the ankles, covering both legs separately...
leg. The distance from the bottom crotch to the lower ankle is also known as the inseam. The inseam length determines the length of the inner pant leg to appropriately fit the wearer. In the UK this is usually known as the inside-leg measurement (for trousers fit).
See also
- List of sewing stitches
- Embroidery stitchEmbroidery stitchIn everyday language, a stitch in the context of embroidery or hand-sewing is defined as the movement of the embroidery needle from the backside of the fabric to the front side and back to the back side. The thread stroke on the front side produced by this is also called stitch...
- Notions
- Glossary of sewing terminologyGlossary of sewing terminologySewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising the in Paleolithic Era...
- Glossary of textile manufacturing