What’s Up This Week at J Stern Designs: How to Hem a Chiffon Dress

Hey Everyone,  I spent Sunday hemming a dress for my niece for a wedding this Friday.  The original plan was to film my process to share on my YouTube Channel, but I was feeling pressed for time.   So,  I decided to snap photos of some of the steps to share in a blog post.   When I sat down to write this post, I was surprised that the last time I wrote a one was in 2020!

If you have been following along with me from the beginning, you might remember I started out as a blogger not a vlogger.  I loved to share my projects and techniques here.  Just between you and me,  I wanted to create videos way back then too… but I was AFRAID of the camera!  Even when it was just the two of us in the room.   I knew creating videos was something I needed to be able to do, so I forced myself to learn to feel comfortable in front of the camera.   As I practiced, I started uploading more videos to my YouTube Channel.  As a result, I spent less time blogging until I stopped all together.

Sitting down to write this post about hemming a chiffon dress caused me realize that I miss my blog.   The original title of this post was “How to Hem a Chiffon Dress”.   I changed it to “What’s Up This Week at J Stern Designs: How to Hem a Chiffon Dress”.  I’m planning on posting weekly so I can share projects that pop up last minute or things I’m working on that don’t make my monthly calendar.  Now onto the topic at hand!

How Did I Mark the Hem?

This dress has a chiffon skirt with two layers of lining underneath. Here’s a photo of the dress after it was finished.  All three layers of the skirt were way to long, at least 5″ were dragging on the floor.   I decided the easiest  way to make it manageable was to mark the hem where it touched the floor.  I marked the hem by pinning all the layers together where they brushed the floor.

To accurately mark all three layers accurately, I used a Sharpie Marker to mark the position of the pins.  Unlike chalk, the ink bled through to mark all three layers in one step.   The Sharpie was also easy to see and did not brush off!   While marking the hem in one step worked great, I had to separate the layers to trim off the excess length because the chiffon skirt was much fuller than the lining layers.

How to Hem the Chiffon Skirt

The goal was to shorten the skirt so the hem was about 1″ above the floor.  I decided to use the “Calvin Klein” hem technique to finish the raw edge of the chiffon skirt.  This was the first way I learned to do a hem way back in the 90s.    I’m pretty sure  that this technique has be adopted by lots of sewing teachers and has been renamed many times.  I still refer to it as the Calvin Klein hem because that’s where it all started …he used it to finish his ready-to-wear hems!

There are two major benefits to hemming sheer fabrics this way.  First, there is no pressing required to fold the hem into place.  Second, it’s double sewn to give the hem a little weight.  Let’s get into it!

The first step is to mark the finished length of the hem PLUS 1/4″.   I ditched the Sharpie Marker for a Chalk-O-Liner to mark the hem 3/4″ from the trimmed edge. Remember the goal was to shorten the hem so it was about 1″ above the floor.  I cut off the excess length at floor length, so I need the extra 1/4″ to turn up the final hem.

After the hem is marked, it’s time to go to the sewing machine.  If you’re working with sheer or lightweight fabrics, use a size 10-12 Microtex Needle.  No need to press the hem up!  I folded the hem to the inside along the chalk line and positioned the hem under the presser foot.  Hold the fabric in back and front of the presser foot, gently pulling it taut.  You don’t want to prevent it from feeding under the presser foot from the front.  You also don’t want to pull it out from behind the presser foot.  Let the feed dogs do the work, you’re just holding it firmly between your hands as you stitch.   Sew 1/8″ from the folded edge.

Trim away the fabric close to the stitching.   I experimented with a few different kinds of small scissors.  First I tried my sharp pointed embroidery scissors, but the tip of the blade kept getting caught on the delicate chiffon fabric.   So, I switched to blunt tip scissors.  I’ve had these Finny scissors in my tool box for over 20 years.  They worked great, the blunt tips slid across the fabric instead of getting caught up on it.   I tried to find a link to share with you, but I couldn’t find them.   I did find some Kia  Scissors at The Confident Stitch that look like they would be great too!

After I finished trimming the excess fabric away, the next step is to fold the hem up 1/4″ and stitch it in place.   If you’re working with a hem that has a significant curve or shape, 1/4″ may be too wide and will not lay flat after it’s sewn.   The best idea is to sew a small sample hem using the excess fabric that you cut off before you start hemming your garment.

Position the folded hem under the presser foot so you can sew close to the fold at the top of the hem.   Use the same technique to sew the hem in place as described above.  Hold the fabric in front and behind the presser foot, keeping it taut as you stitch.   Don’t worry about the entire hem.  Pay attention to the three inches in front of the presser foot.

Press the Hem

Now it’s time to heat up the iron.   Test a scrap of fabric before you press the hem to make sure the iron isn’t too hot.   Press the hem to smooth it out.

How to Hem the Lining Fabric Layers

The goal for hemming the lining layers is to make sure they stay out of sight.  If the skirt fabric is “see through” like the chiffon I’m working with it’s also important to make sure the lining layers are parallel to the skirt hem so it looks even.  The first step is to trim the lining layers shorter than the skirt layer.  Because I cut the lining and the skirt layers the same length initially, it was easy to measure up  from the raw edge of the lining layers.

The finished skirt hem is currently 1″ higher than the raw edges of the lining layers.  Before trimming off more length from the lining layers it’s important to decide how you’re going to hem them.   Instead of using the Calvin Klein hem technique, I played with using my serger to finish the raw edges with a rolled hem.   My samples came out beautiful and it’s so fast!   A rolled hem shortens the length a negligible amount.  If you’re going to turn the hem up, take the hem allowance into consideration when you cut off the excess length before hemming the lining layers.

I cut off 2″ from the raw edges of the lining.  Then I stitched the rolled hem on the outer lining layer, trimming off nothing.  When I clean finished the inner lining layer, I trimmed off 1/2″ to make it slightly shorter than the outer layer.

A sweet ending to a sweet project!   Usually I’m not a fan of altering garments, but I really enjoyed working on this dress.    I also had to shorten the straps… I’ll share how I did this next week on “What’s Up Next at J Stern Designs”.    Thanks for following along with me.