Updated on: January 21, 2021
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Janome MB-4S
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Brother Embroidery Machine PE770
Buying a Embroidery Machine for Home Business checklist: Tips and how-to guide
If you have this stitch on your home sewing machine you can blind hem everything you own in your closet pants skirts dresses and never have to pay a tailor or alterations specialist again Notice how the stitch is essentially several straight stitches in a row and then a zig-zag stitch before it resumes the straight stitching.
I’m going to show you the magic of home sewing blind hemming and I’m going to show you how to do it on an actual pair of pants. Many demos out there in internet land only show you how to blind hem on a flat piece of fabric. I’m going to teach you how to do it on an actual pair of pants. Now what do I actually mean by blind hem? What I mean is the manufacturer has achieved an invisible effect or nearly invisible effect from the hemming and it looks like this. Here they have serged and then when you look really close they used a blind hemming machine to catch in a chain stitch the fabric and it barely penetrates the fabric and that’s why it’s so blind.
Now what we’re going to achieve with this stitch on this pair of pants is a nearly blind effect so if you’re fussy about a truly blind effect you may not care for this technique but I’m going to show it to you and then you can decide for yourself. So you see the great thing about doing it on your home sewing machine is these stitches of integrity they don’t ravel out like will happen with the manufacturer’s chain stitch. So while the definite benefit of manufacturer blind hemming is truly blind the con is that when you snag it or it somehow becomes undone that hem it just chain stitches right out and then you’re left with a gapping hem that will eventually fall down. So here’s what’s going to happen next. I’m going to show you all the basic steps leading up to blind hemming and then I’m going to thoroughly show you how to do it on your machine. This pair of pants needs to be hemmed up 1-1/2 inches.
Now take out the old stitching pull all the fabric out and lay it flat. Here’s the new fold line but where’s the new cutting line going to be? Ideally it’s going to be anywhere from 1-1/2 to 2 inches out. Well, look — the old fold line is that 1-1/2 inches out so I’m going to use it to my advantage. I’m going to cut just a quarter inch beyond the old fold line and you’ll see why in just a minute. And I prefer pinking shears so that’s what I did.
If you don’t happen to have the advantage of the old fold line occurring in just the right spot, well then you just go ahead and press under this quarter inch. Before we go further we need to figure out how we want our raw edge handled here. Are you going to pink like I did, are you going to fold under like I did, are you going to serge, are you going to use the zig-zag stitch on your machine. Just what are you going to do? For those of you who don’t have a serger I want you to have the benefit of the magic of home sewing blind hemming, and so I have opted for folding under. What to do next is press the new fold line.
All right! We’re pressed on the new fold line, we know that we have 1-1/2 inches pressed down and a quarter inch lipped under and we’re ready to go over to the machine and blind hem. Exciting! However before we go over to the machine we have to rock and roll an exceptionally great pin job that sets us up for success at the machine. What I’m going to show you next might seem particularly daunting, it might seem just too tricky, but we’re going to stick with it until we get it. Begin at one or the other side seams facing you. Now I find it advantageous to have the pants hanging down.
Pick it up and flip it back once almost as though you were going to cuff it then begin to flip it again until just a little lip of fabric up here is extended and capture it with your pin. Let’s go to the other side seam and do it again. Here we are at the other side seam, flip it back once then flip it back again until it’s just your raw edge or however you handled it is just extended a little ways, capture it with a pin. Now go to the crease and if there isn’t a crease go to about the midpoint. Now that you’re nice and tautly pinned on the sides you’re essentially set up for the last pins that you’re going to use.
It already is in a fold back position the first fold back position, now you’re going to go for the second fold back, that little lip is extended there, stab a pin. Here we are at the last crease and it’s already set up with one turn back because of being pinned on the sides and the third position I’ll flip it back that one more time, stab a pin in there. Now you’re set up that you can put more pins in here if you want I’m probably not going to, well I guess I will for your sakes just pin.
You know, I just believe in pinning and pinning some more even to excess sometimes so that when you get to the machine all you have to do is swoosh through. Okay so now I’m going to undo all this and I’m going to do it again for you, that’s how much I believe in your being able to get the knack of this and this time I want you to watch my hands more than what I’m doing with the pins or the pants Begin at either side seam I tuck my thumbs under and flip back the pants once, then I tuck my thumbs again under and flip it back again, and while I’m flipping it back with my back fingers I’m making sure this remains flat and doesn’t get scrunched up, all is flat here, all is flat in front, keep forefinger and thumbing into place grab that pin and capture it. Other side seem grasp hold it taut with your thumbs flip it back then flip back again see how my thumbs are doing a lot of work so are the forefingers until just that ridge extends, capture it. Go to the midpoint hold it kind of taut although it already is because of the two pins are just placed and it’s already naturally flipped back the one time you only have to go that second flip leave your extension capture it and while you’re there put more pins in if you like.
Final crease or midpoint they’re all set up simply flip back one more time scrunch down your lip, your little extension capture it place more pins as needed. It essentially looks like you’re going to cuff. That’s how you’ll know you’ve got it looking the right way. Check your work and let’s get over to the machine I like to start at the inner side seam.
Make sure you’ve practiced on a flat piece of fabric first and experimented around with how long you want your stitches to be I already have mine set the way I want to because there is many and varied ways you can set your stitches. They can be tight, they can be loose, they can zigzag in deep or they can zigzag in shallow. I have my preference set up. Let’s begin Needle down presser foot down on the lip.
We just went about four stitches straight and now it’s going its first zigzag over and I want mine to go as shallowly as possible so I’m stopping and carefully manipulating it In fact I’m going to be going slower than may be desired by some of you, you can go much faster than I’m going to show, but then you have to be careful how much you zigzag in. If you zigzag in deeply it’s going to show on the right side. Here I’m using the hand wheel to control how deeply my zigzag goes in Hand wheel.
Keep unfolding the circle as you go, I’m almost to the first crease. We’re three quarters of the way done and you can see how it on the wrong side it makes kind of this same stitch we’ve gotten familiar with then when we look at the right side how are we doing? Well, pretty good actually Yes, not entirely blind but not bad Homestretch. Now is a good time to mention that this technique works best on totally straight leg pants if the pants are flared it’s probably not going to work real well.
If they’re real tapered it doesn’t work as well either, that’s because everything has to match that you folded back with the new fold line. Make sure your pants are pretty darn straight. My stitch doesn’t back stitch so I simply go forward a little bit several of those straight stitches and then I’m done. Let’s see the final reveal. See my stitches are spaced out quite a ways much more than the manufacturers but that doesn’t matter, what matters is that if one of these gets snagged now it’s not going to unravel out, it would have to unravel, they would have to somehow come apart through all these straight stitches to get to the next one and that’s the beauty of the home sewing machine blind hemming technique.