Disadvantages of French seams?

[KatyMac]

I love French seams - quick overlock, flip iron and seal

Butvthen I want casing so I can add elastic and whammy the French seam makes it bulky and a bit pants

But overlooking the edges and just doing an ordinary seam isn't very and friendly

Has anyone come up with a neat solution?

Wouldn't the casing cover up any raw seams?

So just skip the French seam where the casing is going, and trim the seam intead?

I'm not sure I understand

I'm making a drawstring blouse
I sew the sleeves in using a French seam
Then either fold over the top or using bias to make a channel

Then I sew that line when it goes ove the fench seams the machine struggles and its bulky

If you're making a casing by folding, you can snip into the French seam at the fold line almost up to the stitching line, and then when you make the fold you can lay the seam inside it in opposite directions. This will halve the bulk.

If you're making a double fold at the top of the casing you can just snip away the end part of the French seam by snipping at the top fold and cutting close to the seam.

It can be awkward to thread anything through a casing if you have seams inside it lying in different directions, so I usually tack the enclosed seams to the side they should go before I fold and stitch the casing, and leave the tacking in place until I've put the elastic in.

Great ideas thanks

I've seen the snipping thing for Jean seams but hadn't translated it