Leave in old seam?
 

Sometimes I sew a seam a little too narrow and have to redo it a bit wider, and I usually sew the new seam and then rip the old seam, but it's occurred to me that as long as I'm pressing the allowance to the side that it wouldn't cause any problems if I left the old stitches in. Does anyone leave these in? Does it cause any problems?

Obviously if I'm pressing the seam open or if the initial seam is too wide then I have to remove the old stitches.

I’ve done that and left the original seam in. Didn’t notice any problems.

Rob

Thanks! It didn't seem like it would cause problems, but it's good to know that someone else has done this and I'm not going to run into something I didn't think of once I've got the whole thing sewn together.

i have, too.

I do enough ripping with out removing a narrowe seam.

i'm with the leave it in group

If I have to widen the seam and am planning to iron the seam to one side, I never rip. I consider it as an extra guarantee that the seam won't ever rip out. My thread is 50 weight so it doesn't add hardly anything to the seam. Now I might would have to rethink the ripping if I was using 40 weight thread.

If I have fabric that is really bad about raveling, I have been know to sew a wavy extra seam within each seam allowance to stabilize the bad material. After one quilt like that, if I see the material raveling, I discontinue the use of it in a quilt unless I am going to sew 1/2" seams. And, I do that when piecing the back, then iron them open.

Good advice as always.

Ditto to what everyone has said. The less ripping the happier I am.

I also do not rip out the too-narrow seam. If it is a case of swirling the intersection of 4 blocks, I will remove the too narrow stitching only at the intersection. The rest can stay.

Same here.

I'm with all the others. Leave it in if pressing to one side. I hardly ever press seams open.

I do that all the time - no need to rip if I don't have to! If however it is to be pressed open I will rip.

Now - if the seam is to be "twirled" as in the middle of a four patch I will rip out a little more than a 1/4 inch so it can swirl correctly.

This is such good news. I've had to resew a lot of seams lately. :p

I leave in the old seam unless it will interfere with my piecing or pressing.

I take the stitching out and press my seams open, since it is easier to machine QAYG on my home sewing machine.

I have an 8 x 11 note on my machine to remind me about my settings, and still manage to get it wrong from time to time. I leave mine alone. I hate taking out stitches, so this works for me.

I am, too.

The only time I see leaving them in might cause a problem is if a lot of seams are coming together in one spot. You'd be surprised how much room "thread" takes. A few extra threads in the middle of pinwheel can mess things up.

That's what I do, too.

I did leave in the old seams in my first 47” dreden plate. It took several hours for me to “tame the volcano” and I was not willing to “frog sew” and risk stretching anything. Since I was ironing to the side, I just left the other stitches in.

I don't take the old seam out either!