Ohh La La Pin Up Sew Along... Sewing your French seams.

The pattern we're using...

Today for the sew-along we'll sew all our side seams together. Unlike the regular seams we used to cobble our muslins together, we'll be using French seams, stitched flat to encase our boning.
But first, since this pattern has seam numbers instead of notches, how will you tell your pattern pieces apart? You can always mark with chalk or fading fabric pen but I prefer to make a key.

I'm not sure why I went up to five instead of four here, must've been the wine.

To tell my many pattern pieces apart since I used pattern weights instead of pins when cutting, I like to color code my seams with pins.

So for example, blue is seam #3, green is seam #4, and instead of matching notches, I match up the pins.

Now for our French seams. Remember, Wrong sides together, then Right. Sarah and I have both added a 5/8" seam allowance to our pattern pieces.

Place the pattern pieces WRONG sides together and stitch a 1/4" seam. Keep in mind that you want to be as accurate as possible with your measurements here so you have room to slip the boning in later.

 A this point, I like to pink my raw edges to trim them down the tiniest bit and avoid loose threads.

Once you have sewn your WRONG sides together, you fold the pieces RIGHT sides together so that the raw edge from your first line of stitching is encased in the fold.

Pin in place and stitch 3/8" from the fold so that your raw edges are tucked neatly inside your new,  French seam.

(I like to do these seams in batches so that I don't have the bulk of all the corset pieces together at once while I'm maneuvering around my machine.)

French Seam.

We want this French seam to lay flat against the corset so next, topstitch the seam down, staying as close to the outside seam edge as you can.

From the Wrong Side.

Now we have this lovely, clean seam with a nice channel inside for the boning to slip inside.

Next time: Boning! (This is my favorite part!)