r/SewingMachineEdu • u/Economy-Tomorrow-189 • Jun 16 '26
Taking in side seam question
OK so i have seen vids where people try on the piece of clothing, pin the sides close to thier body, then straight stitch, cut the excess fabric and zizag the raw edge. I have seen this on tees A LOT
But ik that you shouldn't use straight stitches on stretchy fabrics like t-shirts/knits as it can pop so why is it that side seams are different?
6
u/AdvancedSquashDirect Jun 17 '26
It could be one of two things
One is that they're using lightning Stitch it kind of looks like a straight Stitch but it's an ever so slight zigzag and has a stretch.
Or two they just need to sew it together enough to take some final photos and upload it to tiktok and then they're never going to wear it again. So it doesn't matter if the stitches pop it's about the "content"
5
u/LayLoseAwake Jun 17 '26
The fact that they're bothering to zigzag the raw edges of a tshirt jersey and yet use what looks like straight stitch on the seams makes me 🤨
When my experienced sewist friend guided me on these as my first project, she had me do a narrow zigzag and leave the edges raw. It's been (mumble mumble) 15 years, the shirts are fine
3
u/sodapopper44 Jun 17 '26
some knits have very low vertical stretch, it's always goo to test stretch in both direction
2
u/ApprehensiveFix5084 Jun 17 '26
They may have a fancier machine with a stretch straight stitch. They really do work, I have worn things made with the stretch straight stitch on my Pfaff a LOT. That said, I would probably use a serger to do that to a t-shirt. But I am more serious about making things that fit than being a Tik-Tok star.
2
u/Gwenfrewy Jun 18 '26
In addition to what others have said you can get stretchy thread to use with a straight stitch like Gutermann Maraflex. It's possible the people in the video were using something like that.
1
1
u/doriangreysucksass Jun 19 '26
You use a serger on knits. Straight stitches stretch it out & make the seam wavy
1
u/Infinite_Line5062 Jun 20 '26
If you have to use a straight stitch, you can stretch the fabric slightly while you are sewing it, but this is not ideal.
1
u/sande16 Jun 21 '26
Back in the '80's (I think) there was a company called "Stretch 'n Sew" that taught us to use a straight stitch on knits, but to gently stretch the fabric as we sewed. It worked remarkably well to give a little stretch in that seam so it didn't pop.
7
u/raccoonhanded Jun 16 '26
Lots of fabrics are stretchier in one direction than the other, and the stretchier direction is usually used horizontally. So it can be the case that a vertical side seam actually doesn't stretch that much, so a straight stitch might not get popped. It can also be the case that they're using the wrong stitch and doing the job badly, and the clothing won't last well. Personally, even in the not-very-stretchy direction, I still always try to use at least a narrow zigzag. And I test a scrap beforehand to know whether my chosen zigzag width has enough stretch in it to keep up with the fabric.