Welt Seam Tutorial: 5 Simple Steps

This welt seam tutorial is short for a reason. Sewing a welt seam is super easy. It’s why it is used to sew jeans, one of the most mass-produced garments ever!

You do not need lots of in-depth, step-by-step photos for a welt seam because it is such an easy seam to sew.

Note: that we are talking about sewing a welt seam, not a welt pocket, which is a completely different tutorial! I have a separate tutorial if you want to know how to sew a welt pocket!

And if you prefer video I have welt seam video tutorial on my YouTube channel for you!

What Is A Welt Seam?

A welt seam is like a mock flat-felled seam. It isn’t enclosed like a flat-felled seam is, so the raw edges will need to be finished in some way – either with a serger / overlocker or by using a zigzag stitch on your regular sewing machine.

Step 1: Finishing Raw Edges

Make sure you have finished the edges of your fabric pieces using a zigzag stitch or overlocker / serger. As you’ll note further down, I didn’t do this step (rolls eyes), which means the raw edge can still fray up to the point of the stitched line as in the following image!

Step 2: Right Sides Together

Place the right sides of the fabric together and sew a seam with your chosen finished seam allowance. I’m using 1 cm.

Step 3: Pressing The First Stitch Line

Press the stitches to set them.

Then, press the seam open to start with, and then both sides of your seam allowance to the same side. It should look like this.

Step 4: Preparing For The Final Seam

Place the fabric open under the machine foot, with both right sides of that section facing up. Make sure that the seam allowances are still to one side of the stitch line!

Step 5: Sewing The Welt Seam

Using your sewing machine foot as a guide, sew a line down the length of the original seam, through the three layers:

1. Actual garment layer
2. Seam allowance 1
3. Seam allowance 2

Finished! All the seam allowances should now be stitched in place with one line of topstitching. You could also edge-stitch along the edge of the original stitch line if you wanted to, to make it look more like a mock flat-felled seam. But that is optional!

Isn’t that just a pretty welt seam? You would, of course, use the right colour thread when sewing your welt seam – I used a contrasting thread so that it would show in the photos!

Welt Seam Video Tutorial

As mentioned at the start, I have created a video tutorial on how to sew a welt seam – it’s nice and short and you can watch it right here.

Let me know how you get on with the welt seam – I’d love to hear if the tutorial helped you!

And, if you’d like to learn about other seam finishes, I have the post on sewing French seams and this post on how to sew an open seam!

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