“Oh” you may ask, ” how then do I avoid fraying at the seams?” You don’t. You control it. First, while the correct width of seams for fine doll clothing is 1/4 inch, when cutting fabric that might fray easily, instead allow for 3/8″ seams. This gives you room to cut with pinking shears and still have your 1/4″ seam. The pinking shears greatly reduce fraying and the slightly wider seams take care of the zig-zag cut. Invest in fine quality, sharp pinking shears, don’t go cheap on these. I use Ghinger Pinking shears because they are smaller and razor sharp— and they do come in both right hand and left hand styles.
If with your pinked edges you still feel there might be a little fraying, don’t dump glue on it– use the triple stretch stitch on your machine. This takes a fraction longer but makes an edge that doesn’t fray easily.
Never used pinking shears and don’t know what they are? Pinking shears are special scissors that cut the fabric with a zig-zag edge, for the purpose of the above, helping to prevent fraying. These are NOT THE SAME as the scalloping shears or cheap pinking-type shears you buy in the scrap booking section of the craft store. You need real professional quality (as shown) pinking shears for doing fine sewing.
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