Bridging Seams 101
Hi Everyone! Anna here! Today I will be going over how to create a fagot or bridging seam. Bridging seams are decorative stitches that connect two fabric panels together with an opening in the middle. It is a wonderful trim that is used as insets in any area of a garment; they add a beautiful, heirloom touch. Bridging seams are super easy to add to patterns that have simple seams such as yokes or you can create your own inset anywhere on a garment. Since this is a beginning tutorial, I’ll be demonstrating on an existing seam.
Materials:
- Pattern pieces
- Wash away stabilizer sheets or paper and pencil
- Ruler
- Heavy thread or embroidery floss
- Hand sewing embroidery needle
Sewing the Bridging Seam
Decide on your pattern and placement of your seam. I’ll be using the Lily pattern. We’ll start by cutting out all our pieces. Next, you’ll want to decide how wide you want to make your seam; it is 100% personal preference and the look you are going for. I’ll be creating a half inch gap. I removed half of that amount from the bottom edge of the front yolk and the other half from the top of the front skirt piece. Next, I finished the edges of the top piece and bottom piece; you can do this in your preferred method.
You can do the next step in one of 2 ways. You can create a guide with paper by laying your top piece down on the piece of paper then measuring 1/2″(or whatever width you decided on) line down then lining up your bottom piece with this line as you stitch or you can lay down your front yolk piece on top of the wash away stabilizer then place the front skirt piece half an inch (or whatever width you chose) below it.
Using your fabric marking pen, mark an inch (or however far apart you want to make your stitches; again this is personal preference) along the top piece and do the same to the bottom piece offset by half the amount you decided you wanted your stitches: in my case that was 1/2 inch.
Measure out twice as much embroidery floss or heavy thread as the width of the front yolk. Using your thread and needle, insert the needle from the underside of the fabric starting with the far left mark on your top fabric piece; make sure the thread’s tail is under the needle before pulling through.
Next you’ll want to repeat the process on the bottom. Continue switching between the top piece and bottom until you reach the end.
Make sure you keep the same tension all the way across to ensure even stitches. Wash away the stabilizer if you used stabilizer and continue making your pattern following instructions.
You can also do this decorative seam on your sewing machine, if your sewing machine has fancy seams. You’d just measure the width of the stitch and lay your pieces that far apart on the stabilizer and stitch using your machine.
You can also add a piece of cloth or cloth with lace overlay behind to really make it pop like I did here. There are many different types of bridging seams and this is just the very basic one. Here is an example of a knotted beaded one.
I hope you’ll have fun adding flourishes to future projects!
If you try this out we would love to see! Tag us on instagram at @booandlupatterns or share in our Facebook group!
