Thursday Tip // Pinning, Part 2

A few weeks back we started a beginner tips series with a blog post about pinning. Katherine talked about different types of pins and highly recommended investing in good, sharp pins! I concur. Sharp pins make all the difference. If you missed it, find part one on pinning here.

Our Thursday Tips content is largely fuelled by questions or things that come up in our workshops. When we see recurring themes that’s usually an indication that this would be something useful to share with a wider audience. So this week we are sharing some other tips for pinning and things to keep in mind that actually make a noticeable difference in sewing success.

The point of the pin should point toward the body of your fabric

The video below shows a typical placement of pins in fabric. Generally you want to place the pin perpendicular to the raw edge of the fabric. There are some instances where pinning along the edge in a parallel fashion makes sense but most often a good rule of thumb is to pin from the outside edge of the fabric toward the inside with the pin pointing toward the body of the fabric.

This is the most secure way to place your pins and doesn’t allow the fabric to rotate and shift around the pins causing uneven seams.

Start pinning with notches first

If you are familiar with notches, they are there to mark points on the pattern pieces that are supposed to match up (Thursday Tip: Notches). Provided you have cut everything accurately there is no reason those notches shouldn’t match up.

So the next step is to pin the seam together using the notches as a starting point. Start by matching the notches and placing pins at those points. Then find the start and end of the seam and pin those spots next. Now pin the rest of the seam between each of those points.

Depending on the garment and the pieces you are pinning, those edges should line up perfectly*. Sometimes you will need to ease in one of the pieces but this is also why pinning in this way is so helpful. Then you will know where the ease needs to be distributed and how much of it there is between each set of pins.

*nothing is ever perfect, but you get the idea.

Pin within the seam allowance

When using delicate fabrics or fabrics that are permanently marked by pins, try to pin within the seam allowance to avoid any unwanted holes in your fabric.

Longer pins are good for pinning through many layers of fabric but make sure not to use the whole length of the pin to pin pieces together. If only the tip of the pin is poking through the body of the fabric there is a higher chance it will just slip out when you handle the fabric.

The pictures below show the incorrect and correct way to place a pin.

If you follow these tips and your seams still don’t line up then it’s time to back track a bit and make sure all other steps to get to that point have been done accurately, to the best of your ability. Sometimes it’s an error during the cutting, sometimes a fabric that is handled too much can stretch out (see our tip about staystitching) and sometimes notches are just marked incorrectly (this happens more often than you think!).

Hope this helps you think twice about how you pin. Make those pins work for you, not against you!