​Choosing The Right Trim For An Edge Finish In Dressmaking

When clean finishing edges with decorative trim, there are 3 main things to consider when making your trim choice:
Can it be efficiently stitched either by hand or machine?
Does it work with the garment's design?
And does it cover the garment's edge efficiently. 

From a design stand point, the decorative trim should work visually with the rest of the garment's fabric and design. Choose a decorative trim that complements and or enhances the garment's edge(s) both i terms of color and its structure. The trim should not be so bulky taht it weighs down the garment's edges and disrupts its desired natural drape. 

From a functional stand point, the body of the trim should fully cover the garment's raw edge it finishes. After all, fully  clean finishing a fabric edge means the fabric raw edges is either hidden or enclosed and not visible on the garment's right side. While the trim should efficiently hide the garment's edge (on the garment's face side), the trim doe snot necessarily have to have straight edges- it can asymmetric and irregularly shaped with as many decorative or 3-dimensional elements as desired, as long as the body of the trim does its job of finishing the garment edge, and it can be stitched either by hand or machine. This  takes us to the third equally-important element to considered: attaching the trim to the garment edge

If your is safe to machine stitch either using a regular presser foot (as shown above) or a zipper foot (to stitch next to decorative/raised edge), you can safely topstitching at the area of the trim taht will hide this stitching best. Trims that are designed to be machine stitched will often have edges that  provide a linear stitching guide. Some trims will provide an actual stitch line that is built into the trim design. Regardless of whether the trim was designed for machine stitching or not, you can make the call on whether to machine stitch it in your particular application by pre-testing a scarp of the trim. 

Use a hand-applied stitch to attach bulkier, more complex decorative trims. Depending on the trim, you can use a hand-applied prick stitch, a slipstitch or a regular hemming stitch. Choose the stitch that will provide the most durable yet invisible attachment to garment edge/layer underneath. To encourage the stitch to disappear into the texture of the trim, use a matching color thread.