Curved Hems

Pattern - L'il LDT from Love Notions
Fabric - l'oiseau fabrics
Skill - curved hems

People new to sewing are sometimes intimidated by hemming.  They often put bands on in place of hems just to avoid it.  And a curved hem!  Well, that is serious intimidation.  Actually, it's not that hard at all.

There are a number of ways to do a curved hem and I was faced with one this morning.  You can sew a basting stitch around the edge of the fabric and gently gather.  Another strategy is to serge the edge of the fabric upping the differential so that it gathers the fabric.  I'm always on the lookout for an easy way to get things done and my method works just fine on knit fabric.

The L'il LDT has a curved hem and is perfect for this method.  I start by pinning the required 1" hem allowance at the side seams using long quilting pins.

Then I pin in the centre and a couple more times in between pins.  As you can see from the above picture, the fabric bulges up between the pins, so now I take it to the iron.

Now the reason for long pins becomes obvious. I steam press on the inside of the garment, avoiding the plastic pin heads.

If the bulge is a small one, the steam will shrink it, but if the bulge is larger, it will result in a small tuck - which unfortunately doesn't show up all that well in my black fabric!  A small tuck is just fine and the iron will keep it nice and flat.

On to the coverstitch (or perhaps the sewing machine if you don't have a coverstitch).  Since I ironed the hem well with steam, the cotton knit will hold its pressed shape and I can safely remove pins as the hem feeds through.

The finished hem is safely stitched just below the edge of the fabric.  Since this is knit, I don't have to worry about unravelling on the raw edge.  If I stitched half on and half off the edge, the raw end of the fabric would be enclosed, but it could also result in tunnelling.

The finished garment looks perfect from the right side.  Quick, easy - what more could you want!