I am working on a jacket from Burda 8620 for my pregnant sister. The pattern is cute and I have had fun with it. The jacket has concave hems, they curve up in the middle and come down on the sides (don’t be impressed with the fancy language–I went scrambling for the dictionary so that I could describe it! 🙂 )
Technique time: Hems that curve down in the middle and up at the sides (convex) are relatively easy. The opposite is not, unless I am missing something really obvious. Clipping the fabric does not give me a nice looking hem if anyone looks at the inside of the jacket, and jackets do tend to flap open. Any suggestions?
Sr. Tracey
Replies
Sr. Tracey,
I would try facing the hem with a strip of the same fabric cut on the bias. That way you could stretch and shrink the bias piece using an iron, to follow the same curve as your original garment.
Shelly
I would cut exactly the same shape as the jacket for the the hem, maybe 1.5 to 2 inches wide and sew it on as you would a neck facing. Trim and clip the seam and then press the seam towards the facing. Topstitch through the facing and seam layers and the whole thing should lie nice and flat. rjf
I'm trying to remember what we call that stitching.....other than topstitch.
Understitch? To attach the seam allowances to the facing and keep the facing rolling toward the interior. Then either topstitch the facing edge in place or handstitch it for a more invisible finish.
Carol
Thank you Carol and "rjf". I made a facing piece and it works out quite well, and it corrected another problem with the pattern. The two sides come down to a point, and there is a slit between the front side and the back side. Getting that point to look just so was not impossible, but it did make me a bit cranky. The facing piece also gave me perfect point on the corners. I'll scan a picture of the pattern so that you can see what I am talking about.
Sr. Tracey
Thank you for "understitch". I'm glad the idea remains in my head but unhappy about losing the word. rjf
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