Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Creating a Simple Hem

Our topic for today is creating a hem!  (I intend for all of our post in the recent future to add photos of each step this was suggested to me today and I agree that it is a fabulous idea so look for this feature soon!) In order to create a hem you must decide how large you want your hem to be, if you are using a pattern it might already tell you how large to make the hem.  For this blog we are going to create a 1" hem.

>Items you will need, scissors, iron, ironing board or something to iron on, thread, and a sewing machine. (we will talk about hand sewing a hem in a different post)

>Okay first take your garment and turn it wrong side out.


                        




        







>Take your tape measure and measure up 1 inch  and begin ironing this amount up.  Iron all the way around the garment. If you are good at eyeballing you don't have to keep measuring as you iron but if you are new to this process I recommend that you keep your tape measure handy and frequently check your ironing to make sure that your hem is not loosing or gaining inches.
  













































>After you have gone completely around your garment ironing up1 inch, you are going to start the process again on the raw edge of the garment.  The raw edge is considered the top edge of the 1 inch you just ironed up.  Begin by measuring 1/4" and turning that under.  You are again going to iron this piece so you have a nice neat hem.  Do this all the way around your garment.  Or you could practice all these steps on a scrap piece of material.























































>Now we sew!  If you are sewing on a pair of pants or shorts I recommend if your machine has a removable compartment in the front of your machine, remove this your pants will fit much better without this. For a skirt and most other garments you can leave this piece in place. You want to sew as close as you can to the top folded in and ironed edge.  But make sure you go down enough to ensure that you stay on the hem.


















>Start sewing the hem by going forward a small amount then backtracking and going forward again.  This will ensure that your hem has a nice solid start.  Go slowly and try to stay in a straight line sew completely around your hem.  At the end of the hem backtrack once again.  Now your hem is finished.






























    That wasn't to bad was it :)!  I hope the pictures have added to the ease of making a hem!  If not let me know if there is something I can do better!

    Happy Sewing!

    2 comments:

    1. Hey Shan how have you been? Are you creating this website yourself as well as sewing?

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    2. Hey Rosie

      Yes I am working this blog (and another as well as doing the sewing). I also intend to build an actual web site where mom and I will sell our designs for kids and plus size things (I am sure we will do regular sized things as well, our goal is to learn how to create wedding gowns we know the construction except for creating the perfect courset, once we have that down we will be offering that as well). The website won't come out for a bit b/c we want to have samples available so we are in the process of working on that. I am good things have been hectic b/c we moved and now we are all out in the country its really odd out here LOL.

      Shannon

      ReplyDelete