No Serger? No Worries.

Finishing seams without a serger.

One of the most annoying parts for me of quilting is raveling seams. By the time you get your quilt top sewn together, you have all these raveling threads hanging all over the back of your quilt top. Many quilters finish their quilt block seams with a serger. Using a serger to finish your seams keeps the fabrics from unraveling and leaving those dangling threads. Finished seams on any project prevent unraveling and make the inside look much nicer. Using a serger is one of the best ways to get finished seams on a sewing project. But what if you don’t own a serger or can't afford to buy one? Well, there are many ways to Finish Seams Without a Serger. Over the next few Fridays, we will be looking at a few of the ways to finish seams without a serger from 'The Seasoned Homemaker'. Method #1: Think Pink! The easiest and most common way is to use a pair of pinking shears to cut out your block pieces to avoid raveling. But who cuts out quilt pieces with scissors now days? Well fortunately there is a great little product out called a "rotary pinking blade" that you can put in your rotary cutter to cut out your block pieces and give you that nice pinked finished edge on your seams.

Method #2: ZigZag. Ok, so you don’t own a serger

and you don't own a pair of pinking shears and you still want finished seams. Zigzagging is a great option. Almost all machines come with a zigzag stitch with adjustable stitch width and stitch length. There are two ways to finish seams using a zigzag stitch. The first would be to sew a seam using the correct seam allowance. Then go back and zigzag next to the seam allowance and trim away any excess fabric. This works really well for curves like princess seams and armholes. This finish is fairly close to a serger seam and will eliminate most unraveling. The second way to finish a seam using a zigzag stitch is to zigzag the edges prior to sewing seams together. This works well on straight seams or applications that might prevent trimming. Either way, zigzagging a seam finish is one of the most common ways to finish a seam without a serger. Check back with us next Friday for Methods 3 and 4.