Welcome to week 7 of the Irina Sew Along. This week we are going to have fun with hems! Hems are usually plain and functional but they can be decorative in a subtle way or in a bright and bold way! In this post I’ll share some hem-spiration and few tips and tricks for the different techniques. Some of the techniques depends on your fabric and what machine you have but hopefully you will be inspired to try something a bit different for the hem on your Irina dress.
Fun Hem Techniques
- Single fold hem – Overlocker/zig zag raw edge, fold up once and stitch in place. Probably the most common hem.
- Double fold hem – Fold the hem up twice and stitch in place. No need for overlocking if the raw edge is completely encased. This can get pretty bulky with a thick fabric through.
- Coverstitch hem- A special machine that sews 2 or 3 rows of straight stitch on top and overlocking stitch underneath. Great for knit fabrics. Common on t-shirt hems.
- Twin needle hem – A special needle that is similar to Coverstitch but using a sewing machine instead.
- Flat lock hem – An overlocker stitch that has little seed stitches on top of the fabric. Has good stretch and is nice and quick.
- Rolled hem – An overlocker stitch for light weight woven fabrics likes cotton lawn and silk that rolls the edge in and stitches around it.
- Stretch stitch hem – Using stretch stitches on the sewing machine to get decorative effects that allow stretch.
- Decorative stitch hem – Pick any fun stitch and sew a single fold hem with any of the fun patterns on the machine! looks cool and holds the hem firmly.
- Wing needle decorative hem – A wing needle is a wide needle that makes larger holes in the fabric. When used with a decorative stitch you get a lacey effect! Very cute!
Single fold hem
Overlocker or zig zag the raw edge of your hem. Fold up your allocated seam allowance and iron in place. Add a few pins in you need. Take it to the sewing machine. Stitching always looks better from the top so you want to sew with the right side of your fabric facing up. Before we do this we need to work out which line to follow on our stitch plate to make sure we are cathcing the hem underneath. First, I put my hem under the presser foot upside down and line it up as if I was about to stitch. Choose which line on the right of your stitch plate to follow. As you can see below I am aiming to stitch my hem at the base of my overlocking stitch and I will follow the 5/8 line you can see to the right.
Take it out and flip it over. Line the hem edge with the line on the stitch plate you’ve chosen. Stitch all the way around your hem until you reach the start again. Pull your tops threads through to the back of your dress and tie then in a knot before trimming.
Voila! Classic single fold hem done. Now this hem would look a lot nicer if I had actually changed my overlocker threads to a matching green. I hope my university tutors are not looking at this because at fashion school you were marked down when your overlocking threads didn’t match. But in the real world, sometimes life is to short to change thread colour! 🙂
Single fold hem with decorative stitches
These stitches below were done with the single fold hem instructions above but instead of a straight stitch I picked some fun looking decorative stitches! These ones are quite subtle using a matching thread colour but if you want to you can go bright and bold with a contrasting thread colour, or get even fancier and use a variegated thread!
How cute are these little cups! Don’t forget that most modern machines have a mirror image button so when you’re using a directional stitch like the tea cups you can flip it over so that cups are going the right way on your hem.
On the BERNINA 570 QE (NEW) the mirror image button is in the “i” information button and it’s the symbol that is circled below.
Decorative Stretch Stitches
These decorative stitches can also be used on knit fabrics, although you will need to be more selective of which stitches you choose because some stitches will stretch and warp the fabric too much. But give them a go on a scrap of your fabric and see which ones work and which ones don’t. Every fabric is different. The stitch below is the classic honeycomb stitch which got more stretched out than usual on this knit fabric but I actually quite like the look! I also used a variegated Mettler thread because I love how the colour changes.
Single fold with Wing Needle Decorative stitches
If you haven’t heard about a wing needle before, it’s a needle that has an extra “blade” on each side of the needle shaft which pushes the fabric aside. They are designed for decorative stitches and hemstitching in loosely woven fabrics. They are very fun to create lacey looking stitches and I love using them on the hem of a garment. You can see below a normal needle compare to the wing needle underneath.
The wing needle is for light – medium weight woven fabrics only. It won’t work on knit fabric because they are too bouncy. The sample below is on my medium weight linen and it works even better on a light weight cotton lawn. But try all sorts of different woven fabrics! Loosely woven fabrics will look completely different to tightly woven. Some fabrics like a slippery woven rayon will work but they work better if you starch the fabric before you sew it.
There are a couple of important things to remember when using a wing needle.
- Don’t use your needle threader! The wide wings will damage it.
- Don’t sew the widest stitch width on your machine. The wings will hit the side. I recommend 2mm smaller than your machines max stitch width.
- If you can, tell the machine that you have a wing needle on so that it will automatically set your max stitch width. I have set it on my BERNINA 570 QE in the image below. Select your stitch plate a needle icon on the left menu. Then select the wing needle.
Try different stitches
The stitches won’t necessarily look like their picture but that is what we want. Test out a whole lot of different stitches. You want something that has backwards and forwards motions that pulls thread in different directions as this will maximize the holey look. Even some of the functional overlocking type stitches can give you interesting results. Have a play!
Try different colour threads
Another thing that will change the effect is what colour thread you use. If you use a thread that exactly matches your fabric, the lacey-ness will show up a lot more. If you use a contrasting thread that the stitches themselves will be highlighted more. Neither is right or wrong but different fun options!
Coverstitch Hem
A coverstitch hem is a beautiful flat finish and great for knit fabrics like the Merino Sleeveless tunic. I had a bit of fun with the coverstitch below and I stitched it with a shaded/variegated Mettler thread which is why you see the thread getting lighter & darker in colour. If you have a coverstitch machine, I have a couple of tips for how to get a great coverstitch.
This coverstitch I did was a 2 needle narrow seam on the bernette 62 Air threading Coverstitch machine. As with sewing your standard hem on the sewing machine, you need to start by placing your folded-up hem upside down under the foot so you can see what guide line to follow.
Once you’ve figured that out you can turn your fabric back to the right side up. Start your seam by manually putting your needles down into the fabric and then sew all the way around your hem.
When you get back to the start of your seam continue stitching and overlap the coverstitching by a few centimeters. This gives a little leeway incase you accidentally pull and unravel your coverstitching when you take it out of the machine, which is very easy to do. To finish the seam you have to unlock the loopers underneath. You do this by using the flywheel and manually putting your needles forward and down to the lowest position, and then reversing them back up to the top position. Raise the presser foot and pinch the end of your seam as pull the fabric out.
You need to tie off your coverstitch seam so that it won’t unravel. There are many ways to do this but I pull my needle threads through to the back and tie all 3 threads together in a knot before trimming.
Twin Needle Hem
For those that don’t have a coverstitch machine, you can achieve a similar look with a twin needle on your standard sewing machine. A twin needle has 2 needles coming out of 1 shank and yes, you can use them on any standard domestic sewing machine. There are a variety of widths, sizes and needle types. Make sure you use a ball point/stretch needle for knit fabric and a sharp needle for woven fabrics. The image below has a 2mm, 3mm and 4mm wide twin needles but there are more options. I tend to stick with the skinnier 2mm width because that reduces the risk of the fabric tunneling in between the rows of stitching.
To set the machine up you need to insert the needle as you would a normal needle, with the flat part of the shank towards the back. Thread the machine with 2 reels of thread on top. Machines will generally have 2 spool holders on the top, either two vertical ones or one vertical and one horizontal like on the BERNINA 570 QE below. Thread the machine as you normally would, one thread at a time and put each one through a different eye of the needle.
If you can, tell the machine in your settings that you have a twin needle on. That means the machine won’t let you do any wide stitches that might break the needles.
And it shows you your twin rows of stitching on the machine.
Lastly you will need to loosen your bobbin tension. What happens is the bobbin thread catches both top threads and this creates a zig zag effect underneath the fabric which is what allows for a nice stretchy seam. But if you don’t loosen your bobbin tension then you twin needle sewing will probably pucker up and create a raised bump in between the rows (a tunnel). Other than that there is nothing else you need to do. Go ahead and sew your hem. trim away any excess of your hem above the stitching.
Flatlock Hem
Another favourite hem I use often is a flatlock which is done on the overlocker. You can do this on any overlocker because it is just a matter of changing your tensions and folding the fabric a certain way. I’ve done the flatlock below with a contrasting thread so you can see it easily but with a matching thread it’s a really subtle and a good stretchy functional hem.
To sew a flatlock you need to set your overlocker for 3 thread, with either the right or the left needle. Right needle creates a narrower seam and left is a wider seam. I went with left.
Set your left needle (yellow) tension to 1.5, the upper looper (blue) 3.5 and the lower looper (red) 7. Cutting width 6.5 and stitch length on whatever you want. Photo above is on stitch length 4 and photo below is stitch length 2.5. Differential feed you might need to adjust depending on your fabric.
Once you’ve done your settings you need to fold the hem allowance in a particular z shape. Fold your hem up towards the wrong side of the fabric.
Fold that 2 layers of hem back towards the right side of the fabric to create this Z shape you can see below. Do this on a test scrap first to get the idea.
Sew your hem on the overlocker with the folded edge on top.
It will come out looking a bit funny. Some threads will look pretty loose. Now you need to unfold your hem and give it a firm pull to reveal all the stitches on the top of the garment. Give it a press
This is what the top looks like.
The underneath will have a neat and flat overlocked section.
Rolled Hem
Last but not least we can’t go past the rolled hem on the overlocker. This is my favourite hem for slippery, silky a very light weight fabrics! Slippery and silky fabrics are notoriously difficult to hem nicely because they slip and slide everywhere making it hard to get a nice even hem that doesn’t effect the drape. But a rolled hem on the overlocker is an easy one-step hem with a small rolled edge that neatly catches it all.
A rolled hem is only for light weight woven fabrics and depending what thread you use it can have a number of different looks. If you use a silky thin thread that matches the fabric is will be very subtle but if you use a fun variegated thread it can be bright and fun! Below I have used a variegated thread on a light weight slippery rayon fabric and it came out beautifully! All modern overlockers are capable of doing a rolled hem but some of the much older models it won’t be possible.
Set up your overlocker on 3 threads using the right hand needle and set the tensions to the settings below or whatever you overlocker instruction manual says.
- Needle tension (green) 3.5
- Upper looper (blue) 4
- Lower looper (red) 7.5
- Rolled Hem lever pulled forward
- Cutting width between 5 – 6
- Stitch length 1- 2 or on Rolled Hem setting
Week 7 complete!
I hope you had some fun with hems today and learnt something new. There are so many options to choose from for hemming. Every garment and every fabric is going to be different so it’s nice to have a variety of options in your skill set. Let me know how you get on with your hemming and tell me what your favourite hem technique is in the comments!
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