Love is blind

Blind hem stitch, that is.

I have finally arrived at the end of the Velvet Butterick 3597. Its been a marathon project (a two hour skirt which has taken a month) and I hope not to mention much about it again! All I have left is the hem, which I am stitching by hand using a blind hem stitch.

If you haven't used this stitch before, its an absolute beauty. A stitch with gratifying, magical properties, much like ladder stitch. I have gently eased back a little of the hem here, loosening the stitching, to show how it looks.

I'm not the world's best hand-stitcher by any means, but this clever stitch hems a garment almost invisibly. Indeed on this velvet skirt, I can confidently say that the hem is completely invisible. The pile of the fabric is quite deep, so you don't see any stitching on the outside. I think this is the only thing that has gone smoothly through this whole project! (You can catch previous disasters here, here and here!).

This is how I have blind hem stitched ...

Usually you turn up the hem and press. In this case, I've overlocked the bottom of the hem and just pinned it without pressing. I am leaving all pressing to a dry cleaner when I finish, due to a previous ironing accident! I have used a single thread (to help ensure the stitching is not seen) and secured it in a seam on the garment. I've then taken the needle, crossed to the inside of the hem allowance and taken a small stitch.

Next I have passed the needle diagonally back towards the garment. I have taken a tiny stitch, picking up just two or three threads.

From there I have continued on - the next stitch in the hem, the following one in the garment and so forth. Zig zag back and forth until you are finished. Most literature about blind hem stitch recommends that you over-stitch in the hem allowance every now and then, to ensure that you don't later lose the whole lot, if one part comes undone.

And at the end of all your work, et voila! A beautiful hem.
Now all I need to do is find a dry cleaner who I trust to press this garment ...