My Best Practices: Narrow Hemming

 In this photo tutorial, I used the henley top I sewed from McCalls 7360 as example. 

In this example, I will be doing a 5/8" narrow hem on the henley top. Shown above is the bottom hem of the top which is a bit curved.   

1. Mark the hemline.

I wanted my hemline at 5/8" from the cut edge. I used a marker that disappears with heat. The red marks above represent hemline. 

The marked hemline. 

2. Fold the hem to the wrong side 1/4" lower than the marked hemline. 

The blue marks represent 1/4" line from the red marks. I will use that as a guide when folding in to the wrong side. 

Folding into the wrong side. If your marker is not heat sensitive, you can just press as you fold. I had to do finger pressing so I would not erase my red marks. 

A view of the folded hem. 

3. Sew the folded edge. Stitch 1/8" from the fold.

Stitching 1/8" from the folded edge. 

View of the stitching (1/8" from the folded edge).

4. Trim hem allowance. 

Trim as close to the stitching line as possible. 

After trimming. 

5. Fold the hem along the marked hemline then sew. 

Here I used the red marked line as my guideline for folding. That was the very first line I marked which is equivalent to my 5/8" hemline. 

Sewing the folded hem. 

View of the sewn hemline.  

View from the right side. 

View from the wrong side. 

6. Press. 

Before pressing. 

After pressing.

Up close.

Following the steps above eliminated the need to use pins and the result was a smooth hemline with no unsightly creases or waves.