Rolled hems

Last week I made some knit skirts and used rolled hems on the bottom, which gave a nice wavy finish!

I had intended to use the rolled edge setting on my overlocker (serger) but was having problems getting my overlocker to work (later discovered I needed to change the needle!)

Anyway - since I couldn't do the rolled edge on my overlocker, I decided to try using the rolled hem foot on my sewing machine.

I found it was actually quite easy to use! Here's how:

You fold the edge of your fabric over twice to form your hem and slide this under the foot:

Then put the needle down into the hem where you want it stitched:

Lower the foot, then holding both threads at the back make 3 or 4 stitches.

Then just gently ease the hem up into the curl of the hemmer foot, and continue stitching and feeding the edge of the fabric through:

This produces a nice, neat, small hem:

If you do exactly the same but with knit fabric, the resulting hem has this nice wavy look:

Now that I have my overlocker working again, I thought I'd compare my sewing machine rolled hem with my overlocked rolled edge.

Here's both on the plain cotton fabric - the overlocked hem at the top, and the sewing machine hem on the bottom:

Then here's the difference with the knit fabric. Again the overlocked edge is at the top and the sewing machine stitched hem at the bottom.

I have to say I prefer the machine stitched rolled hem - particularly with the knit fabric, but it is slightly more fiddly to do with the sewing machine!

Do you have a rolled hem foot for your machine? Do you use it much?

I think that I'm going to try out my other machine feet this week. Having had my machine for about 8 years, I think it's about time I learnt what it can do!

I'll post over the coming days what I learn!

I'll be trying:

Blind Stitch Hemming

Smocking

Pin Tucking

Shell Tuck

Fagoting

How well do you know what your sewing machine can do??