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Sewing Tip – which fabric on top

    I was getting ready to sew the lining into my current project (which I can’t wait to show you when it’s finished!) and I had a dilemma. My lining fabric had less “give” than the outer fabric, so even though they were cut to the same size, my outer fabric had a little more width.

    I really wanted all my seams to line up and I remembered an accomplished seamstress friend telling me years ago that when that happens, you need to be selective about which fabric feeds through the machine on top and which is fed through by the machine feed dogs. The problem, however, is hat I couldn’t remember which she said should go where!  So, I did a quick experiment, and now I’ll blog it to always remember, and you’ll know too!  

    When sewing two fabrics together, put the one with more stretch (or the one that might be slightly longer) on the bottom, touching the feed dogs. The fabric that is smaller or has less give should go on the top. I don’t know why, but now I know how.


    You can see in the picture that the one I sewed with the stretchier fabric (the green) on the top (on the right) ended up stretching even more and my ends didn’t line up. The sample I sewed with the stretchier fabric on the bottom (on the left) ended with both ends lining up perfectly.

    It doesn’t look like much of a big deal, but with a 24″ sample I ended up with 1/4″ of extra fabric at the end of the one on the right, and that makes a pretty big difference on larger projects.

    Happy sewing!

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