Rolled Hem Tutorial
- On December 6, 2010
- By Amy
- In Blog, Sewing
0
Below is part of an earlier post I did on stitching up a wrap skirt from the book Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross. I thought the rolled hem technique deserved a post of it’s own. Rolled hems are a great finish on lightweight skirt hems, scarf edges, and shirttail hems. They give an extra nice, couture finish. You can use a special pressure foot to create one by machine, or for a really elegant detail, try hand sewing. It takes patience, but with a little prep work, it looks great.
A rolled edge presser foot has a curly-q of metal coming out the front to help you roll the fabric over itself. They’re available for almost any machine. If you have a rolled hem presser foot, or want to try one, Threads magazine website has a great 3-part post on using this special foot here.
If you want to hand stitch a rolled hem, here’s my favorite way to get a smooth, easy finish. I’ll demonstrate the technique using contrasting thread on a scrap of fabric, but you’d of course use matching thread.
First, trim the bottom edge if needed so you have a nice, even line. Then choose a presser foot that will help you make a consistent stitch 1/8″ away from the edge.
Press the fabric to the wrong side, so that the line of stitching is just showing on the wrong side. Putting in that line of stitching really helps keep the folded amount of fabric even, which is important. A rolled hem can easily look wonky if the folded amounts aren’t consistent.
Bring your threaded needle up through the fold of the fabric.
Then pick up just one or two threads of the fabric about 1/8″ beyond the raw edge of the hem, right below where your thread is coming through the fold.
Go back to the fabric fold and stitch through just the fold of the fabric about 1/8″.
Continue stitching back and forth from the fabric fold to picking up fabric threads a few times.
Then start to tighten the thread so the hem rolls up and hides the raw edge, keeping just the last few stitches loose so it’s easier to see where to stitch next. Keep going!
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