Sewing: How to Grade a Seam

Give your sewing projects a professional touch.

Grade seam allowances to avoid unsightly ridges and bumps on your sewing projects. Professionals take this extra step to reduce bulk. Grading mostly applies to construction seams and facing seams. Facing seams are sewn on the armholes and neckline of a shirt and in place of a waistband on a skirt. Construction seams are the main back and side seams that hold a garment together. By grading construction seams, you reinforce the seam. Grading facing seams helps the facings stay flat.

Things You'll Need

• Iron
• Scissors
• Sewing machine (if you choose to understitch)

Instructions

1. Sew your seam and press the seam open with an iron.

2. Hold your scissors at an angle so that the seam allowance closest to the outside of the garment will be the widest one when you cut down the seam allowance. Trim the seam allowance in half to grade both sides simultaneously for a facing seam.

3. Grade a construction seam by trimming one side of the the seam allowance in half and cutting one-quarter off the other side.

4. Turn facings in and press them down with the iron.

Tips & Warnings

• After cutting the seam allowances to different widths to grade the seams, press each seam toward the facing. You then have the option of understitching, which entails straight-stitching the facing close to the seam to catch the seam allowance. Understitching also prevents the facing from rolling.

References

• Cher Forman; Professional Seamstress; Creations by Cher, Port Charlotte, FL
• Fiber Images: How to Clip a Curve and Grade a Seam
• New Mexico State University: Facings Made Easy
• "Threads Magazine: Trimming Tricks": Mary Ray; 2010