how do I make those fashionable frayed hems on light weight fabrics with out the whole thing becoming snarled ball of frayed thread at the edge of the fabric?
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Replies
To prevent the whole thing from fraying you need to run a row or two of "stay" stitching along the hem line. The further the "stay" stitching is from the edge the more of the fraying that will occur.
On lightweight fabrics, you might also have to limit the length of the fringe, as the fibers are very thin and easily tangled. A lot of patterns suggest making the fringe from separate strips of the same fabric and attaching it as trim to a finished hem, which would give you a little weight for the hem and let you control the fringe better, too. Plus, if you decided later to remove the fringing, you could keep the skirt with a conventional edge. Fringe comes and goes in fashion very quickly, and this way, you'd have both options.
Aside from stitching where you want the fringe to stop, an article in threads showed using a brush to fray the edge instead of actually fringing. Also, if it is a long length, small vertical cuts help as you remove shorter threads.
Nancy
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