One thing that bothers me while #sewing is trimming the sewing allowances: I understand that having wider allowances makes it easier to sew by machine, but all those strips of fabric waste hurt my feeling even if they end up as stuffing and not in a dump.

So, what I tend to do when sewing french seams is not to sew with half the seam allowance, but sew the first seam at a bit less than that and the second seam at a bit more.

And for flat-felled seams, I tend to cut the fabric with double allowance on just one side, and align the other side at one allowance of distance, as in the picture.

It doesn't really change anything, it's not like I can fit more pieces in the same fabric by saving that 6 mm strip, but it helps my OCD :D

I believe it was the norm in old sewing manuals, but I can't be bothered to look for the source right now, sorry