Quick Doodles: Getting Your Seam Allowance Right

When I was a little girl and I absolutely hated to sew, my mom taught me how to sew on the Singer that eventually became such a pain that we traded it in for an Elna.

But while I was learning to sew, my mom made me use a seam gauge. In my experience with sewing, I have run into two kinds: one that screws onto the machine itself, and one with a very powerful magnet that is placed up against whatever seam allowance is called for.

Being tight-budgeted cosplayers, I know that everyone is asking the same question: is it worth the money? If you’re a beginner, maybe.

The magnet seam guide that I talked about is made by Dritz and costs maybe five bucks at the most. Like the screw-in seam gauge, it works by providing a physical barrier that keeps the fabric, ideally from moving past a certain point. But what I’ve noticed is that if a beginner (I did this too) has a tendency to press fabric too far to the right of the seam allowance, the fabric nestles up against the barrier that seam gauges and guides create, sometimes allowing a situation in which the needle sews this second layer over the first. And when I was a beginner, I remember that ripping out my seams and starting over from scratch ticked me off more than anything.

If you’re learning how to sew and you do the same thing I did, use the guides marked on the plate or, if necessary, place the edge of a piece of tape along the desired seam allowance. Don’t get too crazy with the pedal, and go slow. There’s plenty of time to go fast when you have more control over your machine.