Sew Easy #21, How to Hem Your Dress

since we're following unit construction in making  the skirt we want to do all we can before we join the skirt to the blouse and that means we'll put  in the hem now some of you will be skeptical about putting the hem in before we join  the blouse and skirt and try it on but if you have altered your pattern measured yourself  accurately before you altered your pattern you'll be pleasantly surprised to  see how evenly your skirt will hang we'll start by measuring up from the lower  edge of the skirt and your pattern will tell you how wide the hem should be that means how  far up from this lower edge you would measure mark that distance with pins and then we need to turn under this  lower edge and machine stitch it that turn is usually about  one fourth of an inch wide and with practice you can estimate that  distance with your eye and keep it even i'll machine stitch this first turn and here is a seam at the edge of the pleat in order for that pleat to hang properly  the seams are left together and being instead of being pressed  open but down here in the hem we need to press that seam open  in order to distribute the book the seam up in here will be taken care  of especially when I turn up the hem we'll turn the skirt wrong side out and  slip it over the end of the ironing board turn the hem up along the pins and press match seamline to seamline and pin that in place  and then press right on over to the next seam line and match that and pin it then if your skirt has a flare and most of  them do have at least a slight flare you'll have some extra fullness that needs to be  eased out and you'll do that by putting a pin under one of the stitches in this row of stitching and lift it up and do this as often as necessary  across here to get the hem to fit the skirt work one section of your skirt at a  time by that i mean uh between seam line and seam line and as soon as you get all  fullness worked out all the way around the skirt pin it in place then you're ready to put it down  by hand you can use any stitch you like to put the hem down just so it's inconspicuous on the  right side when finished i'd like to show you several types of hemming stitches and i know you  can see them better if i use a solid color fabric and a dark thread for the first one fold the hem back so the  edge extends just above the fold of the skirt don't use a knot but in the edge of the hem  take two or three stitches to fasten the thread let the needle slide through the fold of the hem bring it out and pick up one or two  threads of the garment then put it right back into the fold of the hem and repeat  this step two or three threads in the garment right back into the fold and two or three threads  in the garment right back into the fold and so on the stitches do not show on the top of the hem  and it's very hard to see them on the right side it was difficult to show you how far apart i  was spacing my stitches because the needle was sliding inside the fold i purposely used dark  thread so if you look closely on the right side you can see that they are a little  less than half an inch apart another hemming stitch is done by holding  your hem flat taking one or two threads from your garment and then sliding the needle  inside the fold for about half an inch take a couple of threads in the fabric  and slide the needle into the fold with a little practice you can pick up the threads  and slide the needle into the fold all in one step third method is to pick up one or two threads and then push the needle forward about  half an inch before going through the fold pick up two or three threads again right  opposite the point where your thread came out this will pull your thread down  under the hem where it will not show in all three methods most of the thread  is hidden so it's not apt to be snagged the first method the second which looks the same as the  first but was held differently and the third of course there are other methods of putting in a hem you may want to experimentally  find one that you can do the best let me repeat that any method that gives  you an inconspicuous hem is satisfactory to keep the hem from puckering  smooth it out from time to time and then take a back stitch every once in a while  in order to prevent the hem from ripping out now here are three more points that might help first  hold the hem in your hand so it faces you and you can work up into it second if you're right-handed  work from right to left and third when you make this stitch a one or two threads in the garment  be sure to make it with the threads of the fabric and now i'll take care of this seam and the pleat since this seam should be left together in order  for the pleat to hang properly and since we spread it open down in the hem to distribute the bulk I  need to clip the seam right at the top of the hem and then let it fall into place one  of the early steps in making the skirt was to mark the placement  of the pleats with bastings and this is how we'll use those markings i'll crease the pleat on this first row  of basting and bring it over to the second we'll want to remove the basting that shows but  you may want to leave this that's under the hem where it won't show in so you always have  a mark when you're pressing in your pleat and there's how your finished pleat will look when you use matching thread and small  stitches it's very hard to see the hem now let me take a few stitches in  the hem of the skirt to show you even with a close look it's hard to see in the next lesson our dress is going to take on a more finished appearance i'm going  to join the skirt unit to the blouse