Sooo my alterations pile is pretty large…. and old. I have items in there from over a year ago. Maybe more. My sister will be so happy to hear that I’m finally getting some of these finished up for her!
I thought I’d share some of my alteration progress on the blog to keep myself a little bit accountable.
Starting with some hem projects using my blind hem foot!
Pile of things needing alterations….
Here’s the Blind Stitch foot I have, but it came with my Elna Excellence machine 🙂
I started with this knit jacket. The hem on one sleeve falling off…. actually I also had to stitch down the bottom hem a while ago, and then the sleeve opened up too :/ but I fixed it really quickly.
ugly sleeve hem
previously fixed hem
You’ll need to fold the fabric with the unfinished edge hanging over about 1/4 inch.
The black piece of the foot ensure that you don’t stitch through to the other side. Only a little bit of the fabric will be stitched on the fold.
Love that you can’t see it, especially on knits.
Next, I finished up the hem on a green pencil skirt. It’s been lying around for such a long time, and it only took a few minutes to fix! I can’t believe that I procrastinated SO MUCH.
I did attempt this once, using the wrong color thread (it was green, but not the right green) and without the proper sewing machine foot. It was a little sloppy.
Of course, you can use a normal sewing machine foot for this stitch, but I found that this method works so much better!
The original edge was too thin to use, and would always get rolled up/ stuck in the foot.
I went a little further down on the hem, and above is the beautiful result! I recommend lengthening the stitch, so you don’t have one on the right side every 1/4 inch. You can also adjust needle position to pick less of the fabric on the right side.
Tiny green stitches! This will lay flat once it goes through the wash, and you won’t even notice the changes.
Next time, I’ll attempt using the rolled hem sewing machine foot. Sounds like it would be easier than my current method of ironing a quarter-inch roll or just guessing, and usually making it too big.
Anyway. I hope this was helpful! Don’t be afraid to read your manual and use the tools that came with your machine!
