How to Sew a Hem

Today I'd like to show you a basic sewing skill:

Hemming.

If you can do this, you can do lots of fun stuff.

Like,

tailoring your own {or your family's} pants, skirts, and dresses to the just-right-length.

Which is awesome because now your clothes fit and you don't have to pay someone to make that happen.

So how do you hem?

Well you need some fabric, matching/coordinating thread, an iron and a sewing machine.

Take your fabric and put the right side (which is nice side you want to see) facing down.

If you are hemming pants or a skirt, turn it inside out.

 You need to decide how big of a hem you want.

Often times they are quite small, but for some projects they can be larger.

Here I am showing you a pretty typical hem, which is about a 1/4 inch deep.

So take the edge you want to hem and fold it up a 1/4" 

(1/4" is just about as little of fabric as you can get to stay folded over.)

And iron that in place --- using steam helps it to stay. 

(But make sure your fabric is ok with that)

Now fold it over on top of itself about a 1/4" again

{Its a nice idea to measure your hem, with a ruler, as you go along to make sure its staying uniform.}

And iron that in place.

Now its like so:

Take it over to your sewing machine and line the needle just a bit above the edge you ironed.

Start sewing.

Go about 4 stitches and stop. Now use your reverse button, sew backwards 4 stitches, and stop. 

{This will lock in your stitches so they don't unravel and undo your work.}

Now you let go of the reverse button and just sew straight along your ironed work.

When you get very close to the end, do the reverse stitching for about 4 stitches, go forward over them and end your hem.

And you're done!

So simple!

Finished inside

Finished outside

So now that you know how to do it,

go out there and conquer some hem some how!