how to: blind hem stitch without a special foot

Last week I had to hem a pair of pants and I was so excited to use the blind hem stitch for the first time. I checked out a few online tutorials and everyone started out with the same thing: you’ll need a blind hem foot, switch to your blind hem presser foot, first you’ll need a blind hem foot that has a guide.

Huh? When the women demo’d the blind hem stitch to me on my machine, she did not use a different foot. So, I did a little bit of experimenting with some practice fabric. Here’s the hem.

Here it is folded back. I pinned it in place.

I did some practice stitches to figure out where the fold should be positioned for the best result. I used a magnetic seam guide to mark the best position. Painter’s tape would work just as well.

What you want is for the hem stitch to just barely catch the fabric…

…so when you look at the right side, the stitches are small little dots. When you use matching thread, they’ll become practically invisible.

And that’s it! No special foot needed. I took a picture of my guide position for future reference. You could write it in your manual or just leave the painter’s tape on your machine if you are going to do a lot of hemming.

resources: This video does a good job of showing how to fold your fabric before hemming. This is a great tutorial for hand-stitching a blind hem, which is a nice alternative if you are in the mood for a little bit of hand work.