How to Hem a Dress

Dresses are a very elegant piece of clothing which can be worn as casuals, formals and for parties. With their versatile patterns, colors and designs it is impossible not to have one hanging in your closet. In the olden times, women wore full length gowns which were very difficult to manage. But these gowns reduced to knee and tea length dresses, with various styles and materials. However, many times, when you purchase summer dresses or evening wear and then try it on at home, you might find the length of the dress a bit uneven. And when you do, instead of finding a tailor and getting it corrected or even replacing the dress, you can simply hem it up yourself. Hemming a dress is one of the easiest things to do and you don't even need a sewing machine for this purpose. Learn how to hem a dress from the easy steps mentioned in the coming up paragraphs.

How to Hem a Dress Quickly

Today, with the fashion industry exploring unique trends and styles, there are many new designs in the gorgeous dresses available in stores. But, you either get a free size dress or get it altered in your size so that it fits you. However, many places could charge you for these alterations to get the dress made in your size. If you don't want to burn a hole in your pocket, the easiest way out is learn how to hem a dress on your own. You can also learn the blind stitch by hand, instead of using the machine.

Hemming is known to be the easiest and the most basic stitch anyone could learn and use for their dresses. Also, with this stitch, you don't need to cut, to use the sewing machine or to make difficult folds and stitches in the dress. You can simply shorten or adjust the length of your dress by following a few simple steps and get the job done as easily as possible. Read on to find out how to hem a dress by hand, and make it look perfect.

How to Hem a Dress without Cutting

• When you are learning how to hem a dress, you don't have to worry about which material you are dealing with, e.g.: silk, cotton, nylon, denim, etc.
• Unlike other stitching methods, which are used in learning how to hem pants and other clothes, there is not much you need to gather, other than a needle, thread and an iron to straighten creases.
• Now to start with the process, you need to first measure the length of the dress and find out which is the desired length you want it to be. If it is longer, you will need to shorten the dress and if it is short, you will have to pull out the stitches and lengthen it.
• Therefore, when you are done measuring, use a seam ripper to unpick the hem which is already existent on the dress. But, be very gentle and make sure you don't tear out the fabric.
• After this, you will realize that there are creases created by the first hem which might lead to uneven hemming the second time. So, with the help of an iron, get rid of these creases and make the surface flat and even.
• Now, mark the border of the second hem (measured one), with a chalk and carefully fold the fabric to make a flat strip. While adding the second hem, you will have to keep folding it every time you are putting a stitch, so move the iron over this strip to keep it folded.
• You can add a few pins to make this fold stay stable and then start hemming from one corner. You can learn how to blind stitch while hemming, as this will give you a very neat fold and continue doing this till the end. Keep pulling out the pins when you have to stitch in that part.
• Once, the entire border of the dress is hemmed up properly, check once again if you have been uniform in your stitching and then tie the knot at the end. Your perfect length dress is ready to be tried on! Also find out how to hem jeans, if you have a dress which is made from denim.

Now that you have learned how to hem a dress in a few basic and easy steps, you don't need to go to your tailor every time you want to lengthen or shorten your dresses. You just need a needle and a thread, and you can wear those lovely dresses which were stacked up in your closet because they were too short or long for you!