Sewing stripes is not a big deal but sewing it without any fabric edges inside making it seam, sorry seem messy, is. Here is a very easy technique to sew striped or color blocked fabric with an enclosed seam, so that no fabric edges are visible anywhere on the back of the fabric.
Here I am stitching horizontal stripes, ie, stripes that run across the width of the fabric. If you use blue and white for this, you will get a breton stripe or the marinière stripe (so named because of its association with French sailors’ uniforms). In these stripes the white stripes are about 20 mm(.8″) wide and the navy blue stripes are about 10 mm (.4″) wide. You can make similarly striped fabrics with this method.
You can go for vertical stripes as well for a linear look – I am talking about stripes that run up and down the length of the sleeve. These are not all -there are so many other stripes with different color combinations that you can try.
Step 1. Cut out 3 inch wide fabric strips
This 3 inch wide fabric pieces will give you one stripe of 1 inch width each ( if you are folding 1/2 inch each of the edges inside). Fold by the middle and press to get the pressing mark to sew them together.
Step 2. Stitch them together by the middle
Watch this as a video to get more clarity:
When you turn it rightside out, you will get a striped fabric like the picture below:
Step 3. Sew it to the main fabric
Insert the edge of the fabric inside the folds of the edge of the striped fabric and stitch in place.
Continue making stripes this way.
Here I am stitching the striped edges on a sleeve. You can finish the edges also seamlessly this way:
Cut a strip of fabric 3 inches wide. Fold the edges 1/2 inches insider and fold by the middle too. Press in place. Insert the edge of the main fabric inside this folded strip. Pin in place and stitch along the edge.
This is how my striped fabric looks.
Related post: Wearing stripes in your clothes
