Neat seams with your overlocker: tips

Quick little projects on my overlocker can make me so happy because they gives instant results.
But quick doesn’t mean that I don’t want to work neatly, that’s why I’m listing my tips for nice, neat and matching seams.
To demonstrate this I’m making a sweater for my youngest daughter, finished in half an hour ;-).

Requirements

-Overlocker (I’m working with the BERNINA L 890)
-Pattern (I’m using the Isa sweater patternby Bel’Etoile)
-Fabric
-Ribbing
-Matching thread

BERNINA L 890

The L 890 is perfectly suited for working with all types of fabrics, including knits as well as wovens. With One-Step BERNINA Air Threader ✓ Intuitive operation via touch screen ✓ Fast, precise & quiet ✓ Manufactured by BERNINA ✓ 100% designed and engineered in Switzerland ✓

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Tips

Tip 1: Iron, iron and iron again 🙂

Whether I sew on the overlocker or on my sewing machine, I iron every seam open or flat.
This is such an added value to your finished piece and it just looks neat.

Tip 2: Reversed pinning

When sewing 2 seams together, you want them to match up nicely ,right?
In my example, I’m going to close the raglan sleeve and also the side seam of the sweater.
That means that I want the seams of the front and back panel to match like this:

How?
When pinning together, make sure that (for example) at the front, the seam allowance points in 1 direction, and on the back piece in
the other direction.
This way you also avoid a very thick seam allowance.

Then you put a pin through both seams so that they line up exactly.

When sewing, stop just before the pin that holds the seams together.

Take out your pin and hold the seams in place with your finger as you sew past them.

Iron the seams and voilà.

Don’t forget: practice makes perfect, so don’t be too hard on yourself if you don’t always succeed from the first time 🙂

Tip 3: Avoid thick seams in your waistband, neckband and cuffs

You know how it goes, you sew the waistband of your sweater into a circle and then you fold it lengthwise so it’s ready to attach.
But where you fold and iron your seam, you then get a thick seam that doesn’t always look neat.

How to avoid that?

Take your waistband and fold it in half, right sides together.

Cut the overlock stitches a little, do not cut through the 2 straight stitches as this may cause the loosening of your seam.

Fold your waistband back open.
Fold both cut halves in opposite directions.

Now fold and iron your waistband in half (lengthwise), wrong sides together.

You will see, no thick seam to be seen 🙂

Tip 4: Pinning waistband or cuffs

When pinning a waistband to the sweater, for example, you often get see thick seams that are harder to sew neatly.
Again, you’re going to pin the seams opposite to each other.
In the previous step, you already made sure that the seams on the inside of your waistband point away from each other.
That way you will neatly pin the waistband seam to the side seam of your sweater.

Insert a pin through the seam of the waistband and put it exactly through the seam of the sweater too.

When sewing, again, stop just before your pin, remove it and hold the seams together with your finger as you sew over them.

Iron and your seams look like this, perfectly matching each other.

I repeat this process for waistband, sleeve cuffs and also for the neckline.
After half an hour of work, my sweater is ready and I’m sure my little one will be happy with it.
And me, I’m already proud of another beautifully finished piece.