Simplicity 2258 Tutorial: Hong Kong Seams

I just finished this skirt below.

Simplicity 2258

It was made of a greenish slightly iridescent silk twill I have had in my stash for gulp....about ten years! I had originally bought it at an expensive shop called the International House of Silks and Woolens in LA with grand plans for a suit. But I only bought about three yards. That's not nearly enough for a suit! 

Besides, I have yet to make a suit. I always felt guilty looking at it because it's one of the only times I paid a full retail price for a fabric. I don't know if you have ever jealously guarded an expensively purchased fabric, telling yourself things like,"No that simple little skirt pattern isn't nearly good enough for this high class fabric! I'm saving it for something special!" It's something akin to having fine china which you have inherited and never using it for fear of breaking it. 

Life is short my friends and I hereby make a pledge to try using up my "good fabrics".

  In the end the guarded fabric was just made into a simple skirt after all... But why not do something special for it? 

Silk twill gets really shredded and since I'm allergic to my serger I thought I would give this skirt some fancy Hong Kong seams.

Hong Kong seams are bias bound seams. I did a little research and to be honest I could not find out why they are called Hong Kong seams. If any of you know, please do drop me a line! My best guess was that years ago the wealthy would go to Hong Kong to have their clothing custom made and perhaps this seam finish for unlined clothing originated there.

I collect vintage trims and one of my scout co-leaders once gave me several packets of Christmas printed bias binding. I decided to use some of it to trim the inner seams of this skirt giving a neat and cheerful apppearance to the inside of the skirt.

Hong Kong Seams:

Examine your bias trim. If you look closely at it you will see one side of the fold is slightly thinner than the other.

Take the thinner side and open it . Attach it to the side of the seam that won't be showing. Sew the bias trim to the skirt aligning the edges and with their right sides facing each other

Now flip the bias trim over to the side of the seam that faces out and sew it neatly right at the edge.

Et ,Voila! A pretty seam to greet you every time you put on your skirt! Now you don't have to worry about fraying insides!

Below is one side of the seam with the finished Hong Kong Seam.

I wanted to add that I installed a new commenting system here on my blog. It's called Comment Luv . People who don't have a blogger blog have complained that its really hard to leave a comment . I read about Comment Luv on the Sits Girls Forum and have decided to try it. The cool thing about it is you can leave a link to your own blog post or your Twitter account if you are into social media. I have Twitter but don't really get that whole thing yet. My poor old brain can only handle so much techie info. I'll get it all one of these days! I would love to hear from my regular commenters if you prefer this system or the old one.