French Seams and Chemises

[NicoleBridget]

OK, I'm done banging my head against the wall, I'm tired of picking out not one, but two, rows of stitching for each seam...I'm calling in for backup before I run up the white flag.

I'm trying to make a drawstring chemise with French seam finishing.  Basically it's a rectangle piece for the body and a couple rectangles for the sleeves.  Couldn't be more basic, or so I've read.  My question is...in what order should I sew the French seams?  First I sewed the raglan seams, then I sewed the sleeve seams and realized it got wonky at the armpit area.  So I picked out all the stitching.  Then I re-stitched the sleeve first this time, then each raglan seam, and tried to stitch the body seams but found...it was still wonky in the armpit area.  What am I missing here?  Am I sewing them in the wrong order?  I read everywhere that this is the most basic style chemise to make, and everyone casually mentions their French seam finishing.  If it's so easy then I feel like I need to go sit in the corner with my sewing dunce cap on.

Can anyone shed some light?  I would be ever in your debt.

[gem]

I haven't done a raglan sleeve chemise (my French seam chemises are the period rectangular construction + gores & gussets kind--and wow, the gussets ARE a brain-bender!)... but USUALLY when you sew a raglan sleeve, you attach the body pieces to the flat sleeve pieces (the "raglan seam" as you called it), and then sew the whole shebang--side seams AND sleeve seams, from bottom hem to wrist--together in one go. Did you try that?

I'm guessing that by "wonky in the armpit area," you mean the weirdness of French seams crossing French seams and getting those lumpy bits of extra bulk from the seam allowances? (If this isn't the problem just ignore everything from here on out. BUT, I have noticed that I personally don't find RTW raglan sleeve tops as comfortable to wear as a set-in sleeve--and the odd fit at the armpit is part of the issue--altho' I have NOT noticed this with the two raglan sleeve chemises that I own, which I did not make. YMMV!)

You might try leaving the very bottom (armpit) bit of the raglan sleeve seam un-Frenched (basically the seam allowances), so when you have to sew over and Frenchify the armpit area, you're not trying to sew completed French seams into another seam. (Wow--that sort of sounded like it made sense until I wrote it down.  Did it?)

The other thing I've found with French seams is that I get a much nicer (less lumpy) finish doing them by hand. I know it IS possible to sew them by machine, but mine just aren't as neat. (But after sewing the side gores of a smock on backward TWICE, and having to undo all those teeny-tiny handstitches... I definitely see the merits of doing it by machine!)

HTH!

[isabelladangelo]

I wouldn't bother with a french seam.  Instead, take each piece individually and roll the edges.   Once the edges are rolled on each piece, sew the chemise together.  It will save you a lot of frustration. 

[Kate XXXXXX]

When you cross a French seam with another, butt the seamlines up against each other then fold the seam allowance of one one way and the other the other way.  It reduces the bulk and the lump at the seam.  I do the same with felled seams.

[iain robb]

Maybe this is more basic than you are looking for, but ...

When I sew a chemise like the one you're talking about I use french seams. I sew the front to the back first, trim, turn and sew again.

Then I sew each sleeve to the front and back, leaving the bottom of the sleeves open, ending up with what looks like a big X. Then I trim those, turn them and sew them again.

Then I start at the armpit and sew to the end of the sleeve, then from the armpit to the bottom, on each side, trim turn and sew again.

Like I said, maybe that's too basic, but maybe it's helpful.

[Aunty Lou]

what about leaving a couple inches of seam undone at the underarm, both sleeve and side seams, and doing those finishing stitches by hand?  Shouldn't take too long, and you can controll bulk more easily.

[NicoleBridget]

Thank you all for your input.  The chemise and I are currently on a break as I'm exhausted from a new job I started this week.  Once I recover and get back to the chemise I'm going to consult this thread again.  Who knows when that will be...  I just wanted to stop in and thank all of you for your advice before this thread slips down too far!

[Lady Kathleen of Olmsted]

French seams work best when there are no curves involved. Otherwise, there is too much bulk and puckering.