Skirt the Issue

posted by Diana

Last week I promised a tutorial on how to hem a skirt (or dress! or pants!) with absolutely no sewing... so here it is! It's a very easy project and an iron is the fanciest equipment this project requires. Which, I suppose, is actually a fairly lavish requirement in my house... I only iron for sewing projects! But, if you're not schlubby with your clothes like I am, this project will be a breeze.

Here's the skirt I hemmed in all its original sad, sad glory...

The original hemline hit about five inches above my ankle, so it was not-quite a maxi skirt (which I would have been fine with) and therefore not-quite attractive. Still--I saw potential! I thrifted it because I liked the print and because it had pockets. It also fit me perfectly at my natural waist, so I knew it wouldn't take much work to create the silhouette I was after.

Here's a comparison of the skirt unhemmed and the skirt with the rolled hem I showed you last week. There's a huge difference!

Like I mentioned above, this method doesn't only apply to skirts. You can hem or shorten anything with this method--pants, shirt sleeves, curtains... here's how to transform your clothes and various sundries yourself:

What you need to hem a skirt (or other thing) without sewing:

• Skirt (or other thing)
• Scissors
• Measuring tape
• Iron
• Fabric marker or chalk (not pictured)
• Fusible bonding web--aka Stitch Witchery

You can buy Stitch Witchery pretty much anywhere fabric is sold. Mine is vintage (and still worked fine!) but you can pick some up at Joann or Hancock Fabrics.

First, measure and mark where you want to cut your skirt. I used my serged skirt from last week as my guide. I marked my skirt at ten inches to leave room for my Stitch Witchery seam. It's an easy step to forget, so it bears repeating: don't forget to include a seam allowance at least as wide as your Stitch Witchery!

You can barely see the line I marked here.

I used a mechanical pencil to mark my cutting line on the inside of my skirt. That was a pain in the butt because my pencil wouldn't mark very well and kept breaking, so I'd recommend going with a fabric marker. 

Then, cut along the line you marked. 

Here's my skirt all snipped up and ready for hemming. Plug in your iron and heat it to the wool setting with no steam.

Just a note: the directions on my Stitch Witchery say to place a damp cloth between the iron and the project, but I didn't do that. I'm a rebel. And my skirt is made of thick, woven cotton, so it didn't matter. If it was made of synthetic materials, I probably would have added the extra step so I didn't melt my project to my iron.

Next, place the Stitch Witchery at the edge of your hem. The Stitch Witchery goes on the inside of your project, also known as the "wrong" side, or the part that other people don't see.

Maybe you care more than me, but, for the most part, my Stitch Witchery was mostly at the edge of my hem. I wasn't concerned with being very precise, but my skirt hem still turned out fairly even.

Then, fold the edge of your project up and iron over the fabric/Stitch Witchery sandwich you just created.

And here's the partially finished hem! So easy! Continue unrolling and placing the Stitch Witchery at the hem between the fabric folds and ironing it in place.

Check out what the hem looks like from the opposite side. So neatly pressed!

My skirt does have little bunches in the Stitch Witchery, but they're only visible on the wrong side. I could have avoided this bunching by notching, or cutting little triangle pieces from, my fabric. Since these bunches don't show through to the other side, I wouldn't add in that extra step.

If I look grumpy here, it's because I a little bit was.

This was a day crafttime interrupted naptime.

Keep going around and around until, ta-da! Your skirt is hemmed like magic. 

I could just leave my skirt as-is, but I am tempted to top-stitch the hem on my regular sewing machine, just for more stability. I've washed Stitch Witchery projects before and they're fairly durable after a few washings, but eventually the bonding agents will break down. My curtains I Stitch Witcheried from my junior year of college are only now starting to unhem themselves. That's about a six year lifespan on something that took about ten minutes, so I'd say that's a pretty good deal.

Good luck on your own attempts!

Happy making!