Today I attended my American Sewing Guild Neighborhood Group meeting. I took part in the program for the day which was on seam finishes. I presented two: French Bias Piping and Underlining and Seam Finish. While making the samples for the program I snapped some pictures and wrote up a tutorial on the French Bias Piping. This is a lovely way to pipe a neckline or armhole and eliminate the need for a separate facing. Hop on over and take a look.
Also while preparing for this program, I remembered some pictures that I took that should have been included in my last post about my Paisley Houndstooth skirt.
I get questions about the best way to add 5/8" seam allowance to the underlining technique I used on this skirt. After I cut out my fashion fabric I place the pattern on the underlining fabric. I attach a Removable Rotary Guide Arm (made by Olfa) to my rotary cutter and set the distance from the blade to 5/8".
It is then a simple task to guide the arm along the edge of the pattern while the blade cuts 5/8" away from the edge.
I hope you will give both of these seam finishing techniques a try. I'd love to see how you use them.