When you stitch across the seam allowances of an intersecting seam—for example, when sewing a waistband across a garment’s side seam—they tend to “flip.” This creates an awkward join and unbalanced bulk. To prevent flipped seam allowances, I press and fuse narrow strips of fusible web under the allowances where another seam will cross them. They stay in place, and I never have to unpick and restitch a seam to release a seam allowance that has flipped during the stitching process.

—Frances Fogel,

River Forest, Illinois