How to learn French sewing technique

Among all the sewing techniques, French sewing is perhaps one of the most resistant of all. Also called double stitching, French stitching consists of sewing twice in the form of two parallel lines.

Seamstresses often use this technique to  make shirts or to sew jeans or upholstery.  It is particularly suitable for sewing the crotch of pants and all these tension areas of clothing.

To learn the technique, you can turn to a private teacher, a professional in a sewing workshop or learn how to do this sewing in a self-taught way on YouTube . To do this, you should practice regularly to achieve a clean and resistant seam.

To get started,  choose the two pieces of fabric you want to use  and  join them front to front.  The pieces should be staggered so that one of the fabrics can fold over the other.

Pin both pieces so they don’t move when sewing. Run over your sewing machine if you have one.

When you finish the first seam, separate the two pieces of fabric to place the fronts on a table. Fold the longer scrap over the shorter scrap and sew again.  Don’t forget the back stitches and you will get a nice French seam.

The difficulty with this method lies in the fact that the two seams must be parallel for the seam to come out well. Practice seems to be the only way to master this sewing technique!

The steps to sew an overcast

Overcasting  is a stitch used to finish seams that require pleats. This can be, for example, the case of the edges of the pockets of the jeans.

Overcasting consists of passing, with the thread and the needle, around the fabric and  always sewing towards the same side, which creates a kind of loops around the fabric. Overcasting can also be used to prevent the fabric from fraying, which is why it is often used for hems.

To practice overcasting, we recommend that you start with scraps rather than directly using a garment. First, you need to take two pieces of fabric and place them face to face.

As with other sewing techniques, you need to pin the fabrics so they don’t move.

You should start by  sticking the needle into one of the fabrics from the inside.  In other words, you have to stick the needle in the front of one of the two fabrics and then get to the back. Once the needle has come out the other side, you have to make a loop with the sewing thread passing over the two excesses (the two seam allowances) and stick the needle in the reverse of the second fabric. This time, you need to stick the needle in both pieces of fabric at the same time. Thus the thread surrounds the two ends of the fabric.

The overcasting should continue in the same way throughout the seam. At each point, the seamstress goes around the fabric and always sticks the needle in the same side. The needle also always comes out on the same side.

Some decide to  reinforce the seam by sewing a double overcast.  In this case, the same work should be done, but in the opposite direction to the stitching that has already been done. 

To reinforce the stitching, it is also possible to use embroidery thread instead of sewing thread, as it is usually thicker and stronger.