Hi there,
I have been sewing a lot of jersey cotton, making a lot of leggings in particular. Today, one of my friends who bought two pairsof leggings said the bum seam on pair and the leg seam on another pair has come apart. I’m gutted as I went to my local sewing shop to discuss this, I was advised to change my thread to a stretchy polyester and i bought this and re threaded my machine. I noticed the upper loops were loose, so i increased the tension and moved the cutting blade back and that fixed that problem. I increased the left needle tension as advised but now i have two pairs of leggings which my friend said her kids have been wearing them everyday because they love them but i wouldn’t expect the seams to come apart after 10 days! i asked if the leggings were too tight and she said they are a good fit. My tensions on the machine are… 7465
If anyone else has had this problem, I would be so gratful for any advice or how to reinforce the seams.
Thanks
Replies
Serged seams coming apart
Hi, Cornish11.
Is the jersey fabric you used 100% cotton, or is there any spandex? If there's no spandex, it may not have adequate stretch for a close-fitting garment like leggings. In that case, it's possible that, even if the leggings look like they fit well, there's too much strain on the seams. This could cause the serged stitching to fail.
I'd recommend sewing the seams with a narrow zigzag stitch on the sewing machine, or a stretch stitch. These are somewhat stronger than a serged seam and work well in areas that take stress when the garment is worn. You can then serge the seam allowances together for a clean, professional-looking finish.
Carol Fresia, Threads Technical Editor
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