One of the fun things about sewing our own clothes
is that we get to choose the type of finishes
and the look that we want the end garment to be.
I know. So that is the fun of sewing.
And in this video, we're going to talk through how to choose different hem types.
So be it for skirt, pants, top, anything, any hemming that you can better choose
for it, depending on what kind of garment that you're making.
You get to decide.
Welcome back, my sewing friends,
it is always such a delight to have you here. Welcome.
My name is Evelyn Wood and the creator of VintageSewingSchool.com
If you are very brand new here. Welcome.
And here on this channel, we do everything of the vintage
sewing skills to help our modern day garment making so you can get better
at making your own garments if it's something you're interested in doing.
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because we have many more videos coming about this topic.
Now, what we're talking about today is different hemming techniques.
So my whole philosophy about sewing is
that sewing is more than just picking up a pattern and copying it.
That's not that's not why we do this hobby.
We start sewing because we want to create our own clothes if we want to decide
what we want ourselves.
And a lot of that is that you don't have to copy the sewing pattern.
I want you to be able to make choices on what you want,
how you want to construct the garment, what you want it to look like.
This is all decisions you can make
when you start to understand the skills of sewing
and how to apply them to the comments that you're making.
So it's stop copying the pattern and start deciding for yourself.
Learn the skills of sewing so you can decide.
This is the way I teach in vintage
sewing school and all my students
attest to this, that it is how they create the garments that they want.
And now the idea for this video is came across
because I did one very similar about scene finishes.
I'll link this video down below.
So how you can choose a better scene
finishes depending on what type of garment you're making.
Today, we're obviously talking about what
type of hems to use for different types of garments
and how you can choose, because the one that is listed on
the pattern might not be the best one for what you're working on.
OK, so first of all, there are three factors
that I usually use in deciding what him to make.
So it will depend on the fabric type.
So whether it's a sheer thick fabric, a wooly fuzzy fabric, smooth,
fine fabric, all these types of things factor in the use of the garment.
Is it a high active wear, something you'll be doing a lot of activity in?
Is it something, just a dress that you won't be moving much in at all?
And the other is the garment style.
Is it a curved circular hem? Is that a straight and narrow hem?
The style of the garment also impacts it.
We're going to come back to these three things later
and we'll ask the questions around those.
Right now, what we're going to talk about and what I want to run you through
is the different types of hem choices that we actually have.
Now, of course, I have simplified this
and condensed it down to the most common ones
so that we can just work through this together.
Let's look at the type of him.
Choices between a small and narrow hem is one of the most common.
You'll find this often double turn.
It could just be overlooked or searched, churned up and stitched.
Doesn't really matter the way, but a very small, thin, narrow hem is one option.
Or then you actually have a larger hem wear.
A lot more of the fabric is actually turned up.
And we have this really large band of him.
Again, you could use hemming tape like I have here.
You could use just a double turn, turn over the raw edges.
And in case it that way and you could just overlook it, turn it up and stitch.
All of that is to come.
But we have a large enhancer and find a narrower
or a large and heavy obviously with more fabric in here,
it creates a bit more weight to the actual him.
So those are two sort of, I guess, sizes.
Then you obviously have a machine so or hand.
So choices one we can do just on the machine, regular straight stitched
or the other is usually more invisible and hand stitch that hem.
So now we have our hem choices. We know what we can choose.
Let's come back to those three factors that we talked about earlier.
Let's start with the fabric type.
So with the fabric type effects, what type of hem we might use,
for example, a shear fabric could be quite sort of semi see through.
And so you probably any any type of stitching that you do
will be very noticeable.
Any type of overlocking
or serging underneath, you'll actually maybe see through it.
So maybe you want a double turn or hem tapes
and maybe incased more or not so large so you don't see that big strip underneath.
So these types of things can affect the type of hem that you might do.
And if you have a thicker fabric, again, the type of him,
a very a small, narrow him on a thick wool is near impossible to actually do.
So you probably want to use a larger hem
according to the weight of the fabric, because the heavier
the fabric, the larger hem you probably need, the finer the fabric.
You can do. A really nice, small, tiny little narrow him.
So these types of factors
come into what your thought consideration should be when choosing.
And now the government style is a big one, and I think where a lot of us
make the wrong choices. I know I did.
So the government style
mostly concerned when we talk about Hem's is, is the government
straight and narrow?
So a hemline is fairly square and straight or is our hemline curved?
Do we have a circular skirt, for example, where a hemline is curved?
Because this is one of the biggest factors in what we need to decide our hems.
So let me show you a large hem, for example.
Now, this one is already hemmed,
but we can see this is a circular and it is curved. So it's not straight.
It is a curved hem.
And so the problem lies is when we turn this up,
we're left with all of these extra bits. What do you do?
And so the larger you go on a curved hem, the more this distorts.
And you just cut basically because the measurement down here is larger.
Whenever you turn it up, this thin hem is larger than what it's being sewn onto.
And so you always have this issue.
Now, I do need to note that you have a few options
when it comes to larger hems
and what you can do to actually counteract this this amount.
So you can actually use tapes.
So having tapes and such round him tapes of my favorite to use
to actually use to ease in this extra fullness on this edge.
So it matches the one underneath.
This is very common in vintage garments.
And well, if it's good enough for the ladies of the past,
it's good enough for me where we just can't.
It's hard to see in black, but there's little pinches and tiny,
tiny little tucks evenly through here.
So it's easy in that fullness. So it matches.
That's one method of doing it, even when we are.
The other method is to use a hem facing.
So you would actually, instead of turning this up and having it,
you would actually cut and make yourself a facing piece
to actually self-paced the entire hem. That is my very favorite.
That is when we look at thicker fabrics, that makes far more sense
to do to use that method, because even turning it up,
even with all of the easing and skill
that we might have, you're still going to be prone to this,
because when we fold it up so much, the the grain of the fabric,
because of the curve, the bias is coming this way.
And as it curves over, it's coming this way.
So they always want to shift in different directions.
There's just nothing you can do about that.
And so there are your few options when you do come to larger hems to also consider
in your repertoire of hemming skills.
So this means that when you're looking at larger hems like this,
really what you want is the smallest hem possible.
So more like this one is going to be what you'll be looking at,
where you've got just this tiny little turn up,
because as we were just talking about,
it's the more that you increase this , that that is becomes an issue.
So you want the smallest hem possible.
And that difference between the edge here and where you're sewing it to
is very, very minimal. And so you don't run into any problems.
This goes for curved hems on skirts, particularly curved hems on shirt dresses.
You know, where the hem on the blouse is curved up the side, huge.
Everyone runs into those problems.
You need to do as small as possible for curvy hems.
And then on the other side.
So our garment style,
if we are quite square like this one here, this is a nice straight skirt
and is really sort of flat on the on the green here.
And then whenever I lift this up, I can do a really, really big hem.
And it is just going to stay really nice
and actually behave for me because it is just square.
The difference between this one here and where it's being sewn to is very minimal.
And so I can do a larger hem if I want.
Or you could still just do a tiny little one as well.
You get to choose and decide.
Now that factors in Mersa the size. Let's talk.
I think when we talk about the use of the garment, this is win for me at least.
It comes down to hand sewing, this machine sewing.
So I always like to look at the garment after you've figured out the fabric type
and thought about what might be appropriate,
after you've thought about this style and how big your hem might actually be,
depending on their style. Then you think about the garment use.
Is this going to be something that you are very active in and moving around?
Is it something that is like work that you wear to work or do something in?
Or is it just a fancy dress that you're only going to wear to dinner
and you're sitting and eating and not doing much at all?
This will factor in. So for me, sometimes, even though hand sewn.
It's nice and invisible and beautiful, and it's usually my choice
for active garments that I know I'm going to be really active
in, like stepping down and up and moving around a lot in.
I find that, you know, sometimes my heels and my shoes
get caught in a handson hem because it is slightly looser
and it's just not quite as hard wearing as, say,
a machine sewn hem might be, of course.
And so for me, that's
when I also take those types of things into consideration as well when looking at
what type of hemstitched to use.
And of course, then do you want it to be visible or invisible?
The use of it, if it's a more high end type garment,
you're more likely to end to end up wanting
invisible finishes verse if it's something more active
where a machine stitch might be acceptable.
Of course. Now, remember that
your pattern will have a hem allowance already made on that pattern.
So you just have to make sure if you're going to go a larger hem or a smaller him,
you just either for a larger hem, you might need to add
some extra length to your pattern if need be,
or if you want to make a smaller hem, you might actually trim
some off, of course, and Hammet, as you normally would,
to allow for the right type of hem allowance.
So how much you allowed for your hand for that particular pattern?
Always just check the pattern that you're using
when you're going to decide and go off pattern, as I like to call it.
Just check before you make any radical changes.
I do have this gives you a new perspective on what to look for
and things to actually take off and consider when you're hemming.
Remember, all this comes with practice.
The more you do it, the more you'll know and the more you'll be familiar
with making all these choices and the best choices.
It's just practice, I promise.
And now here is a promise that I would love to hear from you.
I would love to hear from you. Next time.
I want you to promise me
next time you in a patent and you're midway through the instructions
and it just says, hem the bottom, turn up and stitch.
You think to yourself, what kind of hem do I want?
Do I want it actually bigger and heavier?
Remember, the larger hem adds a bit
more weight to it as well, rather than being a tiny little one.
You might want your skirt hem to have a bit more weight to it
and hence have a longer hem.
Maybe turn it over twice in there and it's heavier again.
That's a big factor in skirt hems.
You decide what you want for yourself as well.
And I want you to come back and tag me on social media
and tell me how you were able to choose the hem choice
that you actually wanted, not just what the patent told you to use.
So look forward to that.
So tell me, my sewing friends,
what has been your biggest struggle
with hemming or how are you going to use these tips
that I've talked about today in this video?
How are you going to apply them to make better choices in your hemming next time?
That I would be really interested to know.
So until then, my sewing friends have a sewing, bye.