Hem Finishing Basic hemming technique

Hemming your garment gives not only a finished appearance, but adds weight and support.

You can choose whether or not to hem your skirt, however. The photo above shows a chambray fabric w/ a lovely selvedge that would look nice as-is. Also, some border prints go straight to the edge or have an interesting selvedge you might like to incorporate into your design.

A helpful, but not necessary step, is to baste 1/4" from the raw edge to give yourself a pressing guideline. (or use your serger to finish the edge with an overlock stitch). Press this initial finish or guideline to the wrong side of the garment.

Then, measure the remaining hem measurement and press again. For the Woven Essentials dresses and skirts, the total hem allowance is 1.5" so we fold under 1/4" and then press again 1.25" for the total hem allowance.

You may mark your garment to indicate the stitching line for the hem, but if you have cut and pressed accurately, the stitching will be easy to estimate using the markings or a seam guide extension on your machine.

Lengthen the stitch to 3.0 or longer, as you will be stitching through 3 layers of fabric.

Created By
Karen LePage
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