Serging a Vented Seam

If you have a serger, you kinda want to use it everywhere!  You get such a neat, tidy seam, it's a shame not to be able to use it all the time.  Side seams with a vent had me stumped for a long time!  Sure you can stitch that seam with your sewing machine but I really want to have that seam finished with my serger!

Then Tami Meyer of Love Notions Patterns posted how to do it on Instagram!  Lightning bolts!  So that's how you do it!  So now I'm sharing it with you.

Straight stitch a couple of inches first

I took my pattern pieces to my sewing machine and straight stitched about 3 inches down to the stopping point in the vent.  Reverse a couple of stitches to secure the end of the stitching line.

Snip to the stitching line

Next I cut to the stitching line using the top of the vent as my guide.  Then I took it to my serger.

Serge the seam

Serge down the seam to near the bottom.  Fold the vent back so you don't catch it as you serge off the seam.  You can see in the above picture how I veered off, but the seam line is intact to the point.

Press the seam open

Steam press the seamline, with the seam going to the back side of your garment and the vents pressed open.

Now you're ready to hem.  I like to mitre my corners and show how on my post on the Game Day Jersey.  

If you have a coverstitch and would like to use that on your hem, here's a link to my blog post on coverstitching corners

Game Day Jersey, Modal and a Tip or Two

Pattern - Love Notions Game Day Jersey for Ladies
                                   and Game Day Jersey for Children
Skill Level - Confident Beginner
Fabric - l'oiseau fabrics modal jersey
Skills - dealing with modal fabric, mitred corners

Love Notions' two newest patterns are just about as quick a sew as you can get while still retaining some style.  The Game Day patterns for ladies and children have shirt length or dress length and have the options of scoop or v-neck, short or 3/4 length sleeves.  Not only that, the Game Day for Ladies comes in the new 4XL and 5XL sizes and has the full bust option we love! 

Choose your team's colours, jazz them up with the sleeve bands, slap on some vinyl and you have a shirt that sends a shout out to your favourite team.  I chose to go plain and concentrate on the fabric.

So what is this modal we're hearing about so much now?  Modal is a semi-synthetic fabric made from birch tree pulp.  It has a luxurious feel and drapes beautifully.  It resists pilling, breathes and is just as strong when wet making it a good fabric for athletic garments.  And right now it's just about my favourite fabric!  I bought my periwinkle blue modal jersey from l'oiseau fabrics.  Most modal is manufactured in Germany now and l'oiseau fabrics brings in their stock from Europe.

Modal is so stretchy and slinky that it takes a little extra care when cutting out although it's easy to sew and doesn't slip around like shinier fabrics. 

I draped the excess length over a chair at the end of my cutting table to prevent it from distorting and carefully arranged it so that the fabric was as settled as possible. 

I also "puddled" it at the side when cutting out the smaller pieces of the bodice so that the fabric wasn't accidentally stretched.

The Game Day has side slits and I chose to finish my corners with mitres.  It's quite an easy thing to do and gives you a clean look inside the garment with less bulk at the corner.  It also makes hemming easier as you are less likely to miss catching some of the hem at the corners.

The hems and side vents on the Game Day are 1" which makes mitres easy on my senior brain.  I start by pressing the hems.

Then I fold the fabric so the raw edge of the vent and the raw edge of the hem are right sides together.  You can see the fold lines and where they meet is at the folded edge.

The hem is 1" and so is the vent, so I measure up the raw edge 2" and I draw a line from there to the place were the 2 hems meet.

With the sewing machine I stitch along the line and trim the excess back.  Don't forget to backstitch at the fold, or tie the thread ends together so that the stitches don't come undone. Then I flip the fabric to the right side and gently poke the corner out.  Now I'm ready to finish the hems.

Here's the inside with the corners dabbed with Fray Stop just to satisfy my OCD tendency.

The outside looks nice and crisp.  You can just make out the seams of the mitred corners because my iron has highlighted them but after a laundering, you won't see that at all.

I used my coverstitch but the sewing machine works just as well for finishing the hem.  If you want to learn how to coverstitch corners, I have a blog post on that, too.

The Game Day makes a comfortable shirt I could live in every day - it's quick and easy to make and I know I'll be sewing up some more.  I highly recommend it and you can purchase the ladies' or children's Game Day through my affiliate links below.

Love Notions Game Day for Ladies - sizes XL to 5XL

Love Notions Game Day for Children - sizes 2T to 16