Flat Fell Side Seams

Thanks so much for clearing that up!

That’s a chain stitch, formed by a cover stitch machine. Yah, I’m assuming there is a specialized flat fell machine that does all the work in one pass. The shirt is probably fed ‘flat’ and the feller does the two parts at once. A double needle with loppers to form a chain stitch on the bottom. I just noticed on my DH’s brooks brothers it’s the same as yours. His older Ralf Lauren has one seam on the outside and two on the inside - which is formed with two passes. His newer ones has the double chain stitch.

Hi Leah,

Thanks again for the quick response. Both seams have two rows of stitching on both the outside and inside; however the look of the stitches is different between the two which makes me wonder if this was sewn on a different type of machine. For reference, I bought this shirt in Italy a couple of years ago, but I also checked my Charles Tyrwhitt shirts and Banana Republic shirts and the stitching is the same on all of them (double interlock (?) on the inside and single row on the outside).

Thanks,

Brian

I think I get your question now. On the store bought shirt, can you tell me if the left side seam has two rows of top stitching or one? I only see one - which if this is the case I have an easy answer (one side is sewn RST for the first pass, the other side is sewn wrong sides together for the first pass). But if it is not the case I’m going to investigate more.

Hi Leah,

Thanks for responding so quickly and linking to the video. I have attached a couple of pictures to better explain my question. The striped shirt is store bought and the felled side of the seams both point toward the front of the shirt and away from each other. The purple shirt is my practice shirt and the felled side of the seams (both sewed hem to cuff) face away from each other...one pointing to the front and one pointing to the back. Without going from cuff to hem on one of the seams, is there a way of orienting the seams as in the striped shirt so they face away from each other? Does it matter in the end?

Sorry if this is an elementary question, but I want to be sure I am starting out correctly.

Thanks,

Brian

Hi Brian! Thanks for reaching out. When sewing the side seams (even if your aren’t intending to flat fell them), we always sew from hem to cuff - think of it as sewing down the rabbit hole. When doing a flat fell side seam, you sew the seam in two passes, both passes originate from the hem. The basic steps are below. I’ve attached a link to a short video tutorial on the method. Hope this helps! 1) attach flat fell foot 2) with right sides together, matching underarm seams, offset the underside of the shirt side seam to be 1/4” wider than the top side. The underside will feed into the feller. 3) stitch the first pass from hem to cuff. 4) open shirt as far as possible, so it is flat against the machine. 5) sew second pass again from hem to cuff, feeding previously felled seam allowance into feller so it folds again over the shirt. Walk over bulky seams as needed - you might need to remove the goods from the felling foot at the underarm seam. https://vimeo.com/awaywesew/sideseams-flatfell