Originally Posted by Barb in Louisiana

I learned to sew my own clothes by the time I was in the 5th grade, which was a pretty long time ago. All the patterns back then showed the pins going from left to right, with the head on the right. Pinning across the seam had several advantages. If you had to ease fabric in, you could keep the fabric you were sewing into from crumpling up. If you had to match darts or seams, you could pin through the points where they had to match and everything was good enough to go through the fashion police... My Mother. On some long straight seams, if the material was moving or showed the pin holes, I would put the pin in straight with the seam and take it out as I reached it. I used to sew over the pins that were pinned across the seam, but no more. These complicated computerized machines don't like it. They'll jump time in a single hit of the pin. My mother taught me to guide the material with my left hand, since that was where the bulk of the fabric was. I should mention that I am right handed, but even if I was a lefty, I would always put my pins in from right to left, so that my left hand could stabilize the fabric as it is being pulled through the presser foot.

If what you are doing works for you, then it's the right way to do it. For me, it's right to left.

ps....The harps on the older sewing machines were pretty small. You had to keep the bulk of the fabric to the left. There weren't any seam guidelines on the left, only on the right on my sewing machine. I still have a lot of trouble when I have to turn a seam, think Y seam, and sew with the seam width to the left. Sometimes, it's very hard to teach an old dog new tricks.