Sewing Corners and Curves | Serger Tips and Tricks
Serging around corners and curves can be a little tricky, but when you know these handy tips and tricks, it’s no problem at all.
In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to easily sew around square outer and inner corners and how to sew curves without any puckering.
For those of you who are visual learners, you can watch the video tutorial at the end of the post. I give several other serger tips that you won’t want to miss!
Typical Corners and Curves Sewing Projects
- Curved neckband facings
- Square neck facings
- Finishing napkin or placemats
- Burp cloths
- Eye pillows
- Round pillow
Of course, sewing around corners and curves is not a big issue with a regular sewing machine, but when you are using a serger (3 or 4 thread) it is different. For one thing, the serger leaves a chain of stitching that can get quite messy and add bulk to your project if you leave them too long when turning. No more of that!
Before I learned these tips and tricks, I had stitching tails all over the place, which doesn’t look really clean and finished.
Before trying any of these tips, I recommend getting some scrap pieces of fabric and just practice. It takes a little practice and every fabric is different.
Tips for Sewing OUTER CURVES
Start with lining up the fabric edge you are sewing with the side of your serger plate (the side with the blade). This is where you want to keep your focus point. As you slowly sew, you’ll be gently rotating the fabric to the right, keeping the edge of the fabric aligned with the edge of the cutting plate.
Be careful not to twist too much or you’ll get puckers. Just let the machine feed the fabric and you turn the fabric. You’ll get the hang of it real fast.
Tips for sewing INNER CURVES
The same thing as with outer curves, except instead of rotating fabric to the right, you’ll rotate to the left. Inner curves are a tad trickier because it is a smaller radius. Just go slow. Any slight puckering that occurs can be pressed out.
Most likely, you’ll be sewing a lot more outer corners than inner corners, but knowing how to sew an inner corner using this method is a GAME CHANGER!
Outer Corners
To sew an outer corner, sew up to the edge of fabric and then take two more stitches by TURNING THE HANDWHEEL TOWARDS YOU.
Lift up the presser foot, gently pull the fabric back a bit to disengage the threads from the looper hooks. This will enable you to PIVET THE FABRIC around. Align the fabric edge with the knife plate edge and the top of the fabric in align so that when the needles come down it will be at just inside the edge of the fabric.
Continue to sew. It’s pretty simple. Do some practicing on scrap fabric. It’s actually quite fun, and notice what clean corners you have all finished nicely!
Inner Corners
Begin sewing and when you get close to the corner, flip the bottom of the fabric edge to line up with the knife edge of your serger. THIS WILL MAKE A NATURAL PLEAT! Flatten the pleat (it will look like a little ice cream cone).
Continue to sew straight, keeping the fabric along the edge until you have completed the corner.
Open up the fabric and BAM, there you have it!
If there is just slight puckering, this can be pressed out.
NOTE: if the fabric is thicker, you may need to clip the corner just slightly 1/16 of an inch before sewing. You shouldn’t have a problem with lighter weight fabrics.
Once again, practice and test out the fabric you’re using on your project to see whether you need to clip the corner or not.
I hope that was helpful. Please leave a comment if you have any questions.
Here are a few other blog posts you may be interested in:
Sewing Machine Needles: Why Choosing the Right One Matters
Unpicking Serger Stitches the EASY WAY
OVERLOCK STITCH | No Serger Needed
Jan Howell
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