The Earth has always provided everything we need: some of the first humans to clothe themselves did so with leaves woven together with their own stems. As we progressed as a species, the animals we survived on for sustenance also provided bones, antlers, and ivory for the first needles; and sinew, intestines, and veins for the earliest “thread.” Cultures indigenous to the Americas would use the entire agave plant: soaking the leaves until they turned to stringy fibers to be sewn with the tips of the same leaves once they dried.
For thousands and thousands of years, across the planet and across hundreds of cultures that never interacted with one another, we invented sewing again and again. Until the sewing machine was invented in the 19th century, every stitch was done by hand. Now, the fine, high-quality hand sewing techniques humanity honed for dozens of centuries exist almost exclusively in the highest levels of tailoring and haute couture.
I wouldn’t say that industrialization and mass production are bad things—in theory—but the explosion of quickly made, barely designed garments that exist in the majority of our closets does serve to obscure exactly what goes into creating clothing. Creating something beautiful and wearable is more than just designing a silhouette and picking a material: the methods chosen to put it all together are what take a two-dimensional idea from a piece of fabric to a piece of art.
Basically, when we say “it’s what’s on that inside that counts,” we’re talking about seams.
Function
Sometimes, the difference between a low-quality garment and one that is very high end is not readily apparent at first glance, especially if neither garment is showcased on a body. But, as Kristen Fanarakis, founder of luxury brand Senza Tempo, says, all we have to do is turn our clothing inside out.
“The seams will tell you everything you need to know about a garment and brand. They tell you how much a company truly cares about quality. Every detail and extra step takes time...I always think about it like this: sewing clothing is simply engineering. Think about it like a wearable building—the seams and fabric are the foundation and the frame. A house wouldn’t stand for very long if it was built using poor quality materials and techniques.” -KF
One of the oldest articles of clothing that still exists today—the Lendbreen Tunic, dating back to the Iron Age—utilized three different sewing techniques, presumably serving three different functions.
There is one side seam, sewn together with a “Thorsberger seam” for durability, which is achieved by first folding the two layers of the seam to each side, and then sewing all four layers with a running stitch. The edges of the tunic were finished with a “cast-on” or overcast stitch in order to prevent fraying, and the neckline was folded over and secured by running stitches for a clean finish and most likely to prevent it from wearing/stretching out faster from being pulled over the head constantly..
You may be surprised to learn that your average quality, mid-range ($25-30+) T-shirt most likely also utilizes three different stitches serving three different functions.
Around the neck, and sometimes on the side seams, you may see a little line of fabric “tape” sewn with straight stitches meant to stabilize and prevent the neckline from stretching out, as well as relieve the pressure on the shoulder seams, where the weight of the shirt hangs from. On the inside, you’ll see overlocked or “serged” seams created by an overlocker/serger which joins seams and wraps threads around the edges to prevent fraying. And, on the outside of the hem, you’ll see a double line of straight stitching with a more complex one underneath: this is called a coverstitch (done with a coverstitch machine) and finishes the edge of the fabric while securing the hem and allowing the stitching the stretch without breaking.
But that’s a T-shirt of average quality. Unfortunately, most of the clothing most people own—especially wearers of womenswear—is a bit (or well) below average meaning whoever made it most likely cut corners everywhere, not just by using cheaper materials and outsourced labor, but even in the number of stitches.
“The higher the stitch count the longer it takes to sew something. It’s not an obvious detail that most people even think about, but it’s one that matters. Higher stitch counts also mean stronger seams…the looser the stitches, the easier it is for the seam or hem to come undone, we’ve all had it happen. It doesn’t have to. There is an optimal stitch type/count to fabric type/weight ratio to ensure optimal seam strength—most brands are going to take the cheapest/fastest route though.” -KF
The right seams in the right places—reinforced seams at stress points like shoulders and pockets, hand finishing or French seams (English seams if you’re French) on sheer fabrics to hide raw edges, and tiny baby hems on delicate fabrics, for example—are integral to the wearability and longevity of a garment.
Fit
One very interesting thing about the Lendbreen tunic is how the sleeves were attached to the tunic as separate pieces. Most tops we wear now are similarly constructed, but that wasn’t widely the case—nor were they as well fitted/shaped to the shoulder as they are today—until the invention of the set-in sleeve in the 1300s which, along with the use of button closures, leaded to a Fashion Revolution centered on the new phenomenon of tight clothes.
It’s something we take for granted, especially with the ubiquitousness of stretch fabrics now, but, the journey from loose-fitting, square-shaped clothes to the body contouring styles we have today took hundreds of years and dozens of innovations in sewing, the biggest of which being darts.
If you were to try to put a square piece of fabric on your body, front and back, and sew it into a garment, you’d have a number of lumps and bumps where the straight fabric can’t curve around your body’s, you know, curves. This is where darts come in to make a flat piece of fabric into a three-dimensional garment.
In mass produced clothing of average to below average quality, most seams, including darts, are straight—it’s easier to cut and sew and saves fabric—but our bodies aren’t, and not just in the places you might assume. Collars, for example, need to be curved in order to lay flat around our necks. The set-in sleeve was such an innovation because, instead of being a rectangle, a curve was added to shape around the shoulder.
On pants or a skirt laid flat, you’ll also notice that the waistband is curved, as well as potentially the hips. All of these curves and seams contribute to the fit of a garment and can be why, sometimes, even if a piece of clothing matches your measurement, it still may not be wearable. Maybe the bust darts are too shallow to accommodate your breast shape, or the shoulder isn’t curved enough to fit your arm and allow you to move. Sometimes, this is something that can be tailored, but, that also depends on what’s called the seam allowance, or, the amount of fabric on the outside of the stitching line.
Wider seam (allowance) also costs more money from a fabric perspective—that’s extra fabric that adds up, especially for large brands. But wider seams give you the leeway to create a bespoke fit if you are in between sizes on a style, or help a style last longer if you’ve gained weight. Maybe the length of a skirt or dress doesn’t hit at the perfect spot: a wider hem gives you the flexibility to change that if you are taller…I always use a 1-1.5 inch hem to give people more flexibility in alterations. -KF
Form
Of course, seams make clothes and clothes make fashion and sometimes fashion exists just to be pretty. The most beautiful pieces take what’s needed for both proper fit and function and form them into something new. My favorite books for sewing and inspiration, Pattern Magic 1-3 by Tomoko Nakamichi, show dozens of ways to shift darts and curve seams into wildly unique and imaginative shapes and silhouettes.
But while most of us won’t necessarily encounter garments like this, we do see many examples of decorative stitching and seaming everyday. Things like contrast topstitching to reinforce seams on jeans or jackets, pintucks and pleats to create volume in dresses and shirts, and even exposed zippers or asymmetrical buttons as closures are ways of taking things that are necessary for clothes to be, you know, worn into something that elevates the overall aesthetic.
Now, while shopping for yourself, you may realize you don’t like all that extra crap, and prefer the clean cuts and traditional details of more classic garments. While those techniques have been honed for hundreds of years, they also make or break what will appear to be a quality piece and what will just look…lame.
While I lead the charge to force all online retailers—by law—to include pictures of the inside of garments, here’s some more reading you can do on what to look for (and some other fun stuff to read ‘cause learning is great).
How to Spot Quality: The Anatomy of a Seam from the Eileen Fisher blog
Reconstructing the Tunic from Lendbreen in Norway by Marianne Vedeler and Lena Hammarlund
How to assess the quality of garments: A Beginner's Guide (Part Two) by Anuschka Rees
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Thanks for recognizing the labor and thought sewists (like me) put in to making garments beautiful from the inside out. I wish public schools still taught home economics so that consumers had the tools to evaluate garments. (That's the economics part). Another marker between cheap and well-made is that plaids/ stripes/ prints should match across seams. Cheaply-made garments don't match up because, as you note, it costs more money -- and most folks don't know better. Price doesn't mean quality either; I saw an $1,100 designer skirt in a famous Philadelphia boutique last year that was mismatched, and not ironically.