OK, so I have to admit that I am obsessed with feet, and not my own. I’m talking about the ones I sew with. One of the best perks of working for Bernina is that I get to try out all sorts of feet. I would be willing to bet that most people rarely switch from the basic reverse pattern or zig zag foot (foot #1 or #0 for Bernina folks) that is the standard for most sewing.
I was sewing with a group the other day, when one of the gals said she had never done a blind hem. Really?! How could this be? She had just never known about it before. Later in the same week, I had a customer say that she still did her blind hems by hand. I could not believe it! I know that I am nerd when it comes to learning about sewing, but I think it is so rewarding to take the time and learn what your machine CAN do.
Most machines will come with a stitch and foot for doing a Blind Hem. For the Bernina, it is foot #5, and stitch #7 (may vary from machine to machine- I have an activa240). I consider this foot a staple. Maybe because the hem of the dress pants I buy always seem to fall out. The blind hem stitch is the perfect way to fix this or to finish anything that you don’t want to have a visible hem line. The blind hem stitch is basically one zig zag stitch, followed by 3-5 straight stitches in the far right needle position. Did you follow that?
The foot is designed with a bar that goes through the middle of the foot. As you sew, you will guide the fold of your hem against this bar and the five stitches will be taken on the inside of the hem (the part that is not seen) and the zig zag will swing across the bar and take a small stitch into the exterior fabric. It does so in a way that it is barely visible if you match the thread color closely to the fabric.
I just recently finished my first ever Colette pattern, the Beignet skirt. I got to use so many great feet on this project and will be sharing a lot of them with you. This pattern calls for using a blind hem around the bottom of the skirt and it is a beautiful way to finish it.
It’s no secret that I like this stitch and this foot. How about you?
I have always been too intimidated to try using the blind hem foot! I have a Bernina as well (<3!) so seeing it done here makes me want to give it a shot. How do you prepare the fabric? Just fold the hem up & iron?
I love doing blind hems on my machine too! It’s sorta magical….
Oh no, you are making me want a new machine. Maybe it would be possible to find a foot that fits mine. Your skirt turned out beautifully!
I wish I had more chances to use a blind hem on my machine. Although I don’t have a fancy foot for it like that! I know it would make it much easier. I’ve only had to use a blind hem once before when I hemmed a dress for my aunt. Like Heather says, it is kind of magical!
I love the blind hem foot and feature. You can certainly find this foot for almost all machines–either a branded foot or generic. Definitely worth a look.
Hello! I have a Bernina, and use the blind hem foot with mixed success. Sometimes I find the zig zag misses the mark for whole inches at a stretch, other times it goes in too deep and is visible and/or creates a horizonal pleat on the right side. What am I doing wrong?
I admit, I am one of those seamstresses who still tends towards hand hemming things (mostly because I find it relaxing to do hand sewing). But I finally figured out how to do a blind hem on my machine recently, and am itching to try it on my next project! :)
Sometimes I the blind hem on my machine, but as Casey said, I find it so relaxing to do it by hand … so mostly I end up doing it by hand just because it’s so nice to have something slow to work on.
There is something great about hand sewing and I admittedly enjoy it too. I wanted to address a couple of the comments here. Livebird- the key to a great stitch is making sure that the fold of the fabric is right up on the guide of the foot. If the guide rolls over the fold the stitch will be larger and more noticeable. If the fabric is not close enough it will miss the stitch all together. Also, you might have to adjust the stitch width slightly depending on the thickness of your fabric. Narrow for finer fabric and wider for thicker fabric. Enken- sometimes I will zig zag over the raw edge before doing the blind hem, but in this case I folded over the raw edge so that it is encased in the blind hem. When doing the blind hem you fold your hem to the desired length, then you fold the fabric back leaving enough fabric for the blind hem stitching. Think folding like the shape of the letter “z”. Hope that helps.
I have a Singer and have tried to do a blind hem with my machine but didn’t know there could be a foot that made it easier because I can’t seem to keep a constant stitch. Sometimes it will grab too much of the fold and other times misses it completely…Any suggestions? Is there a foot for a Singer?
I can’t view the pictures in this article-what could be wrong?