Hemming Chiffon the Easy Way

Hemming chiffon with no pins, no ironing, no prep work, and only one simple presser foot. What is this magic of which you speak?

I’ll tell you. And then I’ll show you. Scroll to the end if you want to get right to the video.

What I Used

• Chiffon
• 65/9 sharp needle
• Overedge foot This particular foot is by Janome. Your machine manufacturer may have an equivalent foot that looks a little different, or might be called something a little different (overcast foot, for example.)

That’s literally it.

What I Did

1. Work with the right side of the fabric facing down.
2. Fold the raw edge of the chiffon toward the wrong side by about 1/4″ inch—I just eyeballed it. You spend enough time sewing, you can guesstimate pretty well what 1/4″ looks like. Pinch and then fold over again another 1/4″.
3. The trickiest part is starting the seam. Slide this folded section under your presser foot. Optional: layer some stabilizer underneath. This prevents your fabric getting jammed into your needle plate when starting a seam at the fabric edge.
4. Lower your presser foot to anchor the fold.
5. Align your needle to sew close to the inner fold.
6. Move down your raw edge a few inches and repeat step 2. Tug the fabric toward you a bit to flatten the fold between where you’re pinching and the presser foot. If it doesn’t want to play nice, try gently tugging the fabric on the left.

And because a video is worth a thousand words…

Bonus

Turns out this technique goes way beyond chiffon. I’ve used it for a narrow hem on cotton voile, and even for pants legs with a wider hem on crepe de chine. Any woven is fair game!