My daughter used to come sew with me and we had lots of fun. She was a beginner in those days and never really progressed from there before she moved away. One of the things I noticed she did wrong was to ignore the 5/8" seam rule.
When you sew using most well-known patterns,ie. Vogue,Simplicity,McCalls ,& Butterick,all seams are suppose to be sewn with a 5/8" seam. I say suppose to because you can make an exception with side seams only.
You see the style of the garment depends on sticking to 5/8" seams. So in other words, all seams that join one piece to another must be 5/8".For example when you sew the sleeves to the garment, always use 5/8' seams. When you sew on a collar,a facing,a waistband, a top to a bottom, two pieces of a princess seamed top or jacket,and I could go on and on.....always sew with a 5/8"seam..
Now about side seams.Here is where you can cheat a little. I almost always add one inch to side seams just in case the thing I'm making is too small. So I then have 1&;5/8" altogether . As a beginner it would be a good idea to mark this 1&;5/8"seam with a marking pencil that isn't permanent.Then you can baste your seamusing your longest stitch on your machine starting at 1&;5/8"..Try it on and if it doesn't fit,try a narrower seam (you can rip your seam apart using the first tip I gave you).
You see a wider side seam is not going to change the style of the garment or how it will hang or look.
If you want to learn to sew professional looking garments, this is one of the most important rules to observe.
Go sew something now. Your on your way!
