I’m forever hemming petals

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I’m so grateful for all the kind words of encouragement I receive on this blog, and most recently for the comments and emails in response to my post A shower of petals where I asked you all for advice on how to hem large semi-circular crepe de chine silk petals cut on the bias without losing my remaining sanity. (I now even know what a wing needle is. Even though I won’t be using one for this project…). I played around with various ideas, but in the end I decided to keep it simple and go for a baby hem. Should any of you have to hem swathes of bias-cut curved silk, I thought I’d share the process below.

First the cutting- I used a trick I’d read about somewhere but been too lazy to bother with in the past: I cut the pieces out by laying out and pinning my silk on top of some thin paper, pinning the pattern pieces through the fabric into the paper, and cutting the silk and thin paper as one. This really did stop the silk from sliding out of grain and also meant that I got a sharp, accurate cut. I hung my pieces to let the bias stretch.

Then, the hemming. First, the edge of the petals were repinned to some thin paper. (I’m using silk pins. And I gave my scissors a sharpen. And I even bought new machine needles!):

Then I stitched about half an inch away from the edge following the curve. The paper meant that the silk stayed put during sewing, and didn’t pucker or get sucked into the machine plate:

Then I pressed the edge of the petal back away from the paper. The stitching on the paper meant the result was a (relatively) clean curve:

Then, I machined as close to the curved edge as I dared:

Then it was time to play chicken with the scissors and cut the excess off as close to this last line of stitching as possible. Then, and only then, I tore away the paper backing:

That’s not very neat. But there we go. Next, I turned the edge over as little as possible and pressed. It didn’t need pinning, and I didn’t bother pinning it to paper again, I simply stitched the edge down keeping a piece of paper underneath as it went through the machine, and then tore the paper away again afterwards. Then, a final press, and…voila…here’s part of the finished hem on the right side of the fabric:

And the back:

All petals are now hemmed. Hurrah!

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