Hello Everyone!
When it comes to sewing, I never liked two things: invisible stitch (never managed to make it totally invisible and it was annoying) and hand stitching (well, because, bo-o-o-ring!), and so I never in my wildest dreams could imagine that both of these be the best combination for hemming dresses! Making an invisible stitch by hand is what teach in Sewing 101 (no kidding – I was taught that in my first day of sewing school) and they don’t let you even touch a sewing machine until you perfect this stitch (no kidding here as well – I wasn’t allowed to use sewing machine until I proved I can make a perfect invisible stitch, even though I had nearly a decade experience of self-taught sewing:))
It turns out, that making a totally invisible stitch by hand is not that hard of a task, if you know a few tricks – luckily, I can share these pro tricks with you as well! Full tutorial how to master the invisible stitch for hemming dresses or skirts is below – hope you will find it as useful as I did!
A Totally Invisible Stitch Step By Step Tutorial
This tutorial will help you to achieve best results while hemming a skirt or a dress by hand, with no stitches or seams visible on the good side. As you can see from the comparison photo below, on the “WRONG” side there are small, yet visible stitches on the good side of the fabric; while on the “RIGHT” side the seam is totally invisible and it’s exactly the result we will be aiming for. So roll up your sleeves and let’s go!
STEP 1. Using an overlocker or a zig-zag stitch, finish the bottom of the dress or skirt.
STEP 2. Fold the seam allowance you had for the hemline (ussually it’s 3-4 cm) and iron it from the bad side, so that the hemline is nice and flat (I recomment to use steam while ironing as well, to achieve better results).
STEP 3. Using a needle and a thread of any kind (color matching is not important – you will get rid of it once the hemline is finished) secure the hemline in it’s position with rare stitches a few millimeters below the overlocked edge. This step will ensure that the invisible stitch will be in the exact position you want it to be and will ease up stitching later, as the fabric will not be moving or slidding.
STEP 4. Turn your garment inside out, take the hemline and fold it like shown in the photos below. Holding your hemline like shown will make it easier to make the stitches and you will work much faster and more efficiently.
STEP 5. Now comes the fun part: take the needle with a color-matching thread and make your first stich, as shown in the left photo, taking only one thread from the dress fabric (be sure to take only one thread, as this stitch will be showing on the right side of the dress if you take more!). When you have one thread from the dress fabric, slide your needle towards the hemline fabric, as shown in the right photo (you can take 2-3mm or even more with this move, as this is taking only the hemline fabric, thus it will not be showing on the right side).
STEP 6. Repeat the stich around your hemline, remembering that your first stich (marked “1” in photo below) must take only one thread from the main dress fabric, while your second stitch (marked “2” in photo below) can be 2-3mm lenght or more, as it’s made into a hemline fabric, which will not be showing in the final garment.
Important note: make sure the stitches are not tensed, but rather make them a little bit loose – if you pull them, it will be visible from the good side; so go ahead and leave them a little bit looser than ussually!
The line of stitches you make will look something like this (notice, how the stitches are not tensed!):
STEP 7. Iron the finished hemline and enjoy the results!
Hope you liked this tutorial and it will help you with your upoming projects! If any part is not clear or you have additional questions – let me know, I’ll be glad to help :)
Best regards,
Julie