One thing I hadn't gotten the hang of until recently is having a clean finish on my hems when I do it by machine. I've gotten plenty of practice sewing pants over some months and with the extra practice comes a raising of the bottom line for what I consider acceptable quality. In this post I'll discuss what I'd been doing wrong, and what I've done to rectify the method and get that neat hem.
To summarize it all up top: I used to stitch the hem from the wrong side. This was perfectly fine for construction purposes, but it never produced an acceptably neat line of stitching on the right side where it was visible. It was always just a little bit jagged. No matter how much I adjusted the thread tension, stitch length, or even the needle size and type, it always looked better on the side I was sewing on and never the side with the bobbin thread. So the biggest tip is to sew from the right side, which is what you're supposed to do anyway, and every other step is essentially just preparation. And the preparation process makes all the difference!
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| Sewn on the wrong side. |
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| Results from the right side. |
Unless a pants pattern has highly unique and specific instructions on how they should be hemmed, I tend to do the same thing every time. The very first thing I do after cutting the front and back pieces is serge the bottom edge, for two reasons: 1) it prevents the pants from losing length due to fraying and 2) it creates a visual guide for where to fold and press the edge when I eventually get around to hemming, usually the last step of construction. See, preparing for the final step starts early on!
This next part isn't unique: I fold and press the bottom edge 3/8" once to conceal the edge, and then once again at some arbitrary width that can be wider or narrower, depending on the pattern. Pretty standard stuff. To elaborate on the serged edge tip above: because I have that 1/4"-wide serged edge, I find it easy to accurately eyeball the 3/8" fold, which is something I normally have trouble with if I'm not constantly referring to a ruler or sewing gauge. My visual-spatial skills aren't great, admittedly. I have to use a ruler for the second fold anyway, which is 1.5" in my example, so whatever.
In the past, this would be the point at which I'd finish the hem at once by edgestitching along that fold, here on the wrong side. Now, we're still going to be working on the wrong side, but only to secure the folded edge. The easiest thing to do here would be to paste it down with washable basting glue, which is a sewing "hack" product I stand by. However, not everybody has that lying around so instead I advise sewing basting stitches in a contrast color thread. I sewed about 1/8" away from the folded edge, but you don't have to be precise. As long as you're within a 3/8" margin created by that initial fold.
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| Wrong side. |
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| Right side. |
Flip the fabric over to the right side and switch to a matching color thread (mine is blue for clarity). The fold is 1.5" so my stitch line is going to be just under 1.5" away from the bottom edge. To be extra safe you can even mark your intended stitch line with a washable pen. I used a magnetic seam gauge. You don't want to use the basting stitches as reference point for distance necessarily. I am always measuring the distance from the edge, not the baste line because it is irregular. My advice is to treat the basted stitch line as a line you don't want to cross as you're sewing. My needle stayed firmly on the left of this line.
Check both sides to see if you've caught all layers of the fold and that you're satisfied with the neatness. Remove the basting stitches, and you're done!
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Right side.
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| Finished! |
I'm aware that it does seem a little excessive as you're basically measuring and sewing the same seam twice, but in my experience it really does produce the best results. You could stop before the basting step, pin the fold on the wrong side and sew on the right side, but I prefer to work as flat as possible without pins distorting the fabric. It eliminates the chance of shifting or puckering, and it feels better in terms of workflow because I'm not interrupting the sewing to remove pins in what is usually the final step of construction. It's a strong ending, like a sprint across the finish line.
Listen, I'm still supremely lazy because I will go out of my way to avoid blind hemming by hand. I don't pick projects that involve doing it because I will whinge about it and nobody wants to hear it, least of all myself. But if I'm going to employ one single technique for every and all occasions (meaning denim pants, let's be real) and have it be visible, I'm going to do my damnedest to make it appear as skillfully done as I possibly can. After all, I have standards now!
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