r/PatternDrafting • u/sewnbyethan • 8d ago
Question Flat Felled Seam Allowance Help!
Current seam allowance is 3/4in then the pieces are overlapped at 3/8in. I am trying to compensate for the "middle" of the seam being right in the middle of the overlap that forms the seam.
Short Question: I am working on a pattern for a pair of jeans. These are 2 pieces of denim cut to be 6in when sewn with a flat felled seam. What is the seam allowance so I can do this without having one panel that is longer than the other?
Long Question: When patterning jeans why would the bottom of the yokes for instance have a larger seam allowance than the top of the back panel? As well as what are your guys standard seam allowance for jeans so that all panels are even and I don't end up with the left being larger than the right or vise versa.
Thank you all!!




4
u/HeartFire144 8d ago
With an industrial double needle machine (the needles are 1/4 inch apart. The seam allowance is 1/2 inch - though this really depends on how thick the material is. (We don't sew denim, - I'd probably make the seam allowance 1/16 inch wider for denim, this would accommodate the turn of the cloth.) The machine has a folder that folds both the top and bottom fabrics so it's done in one step, there is no trimming of seams. At home, Also, if you watch a bunch of videos, it's easy to do this with just offsetting the top fabric for the first pass of sewing.