How to Use a Rolled Hem Foot

The rolled hem foot creates a hem that's nice and narrow, that's great for delicate, thin, and gauzy fabrics. It rolls the fabric under, and stitches that hem all in one. The rolled hem foot can come in different sizes, and the size difference is apparent in the size of the little seashell whirl, and it shows up in the size of the channel on the underside of the foot, which allows the bulk of that hem to slide under the foot. So to get the fabric to feed into this little seashell whirl correctly, there's a couple of tricks. So I like to double fold the beginning of my hem an eighth of an inch toward the wrong side, so that's an eighth and another eighth, and press. And just for a couple of inches. And then I'm going to take that under the foot, and I'm just going to lay it flat under the foot first, and just put a couple of stitches in. So I'm just aligning that fold right under the center of that seashell whirl. And you might need to use your thread tails to kind of help that fabric stitch and move under the foot. Now that I have a couple of stitches stitched, and I have my needle down in the fabric to secure it there, I'm going to lift the foot, and using either a stiletto or a pin, you can help that fold slide up into the little seashell whirl. So we want that fold to start getting caught up in the little whirl. And different fabrics will react a little bit differently, so this foot is great for lightweight fabrics, such as this very gauzy fabric. It's great for chiffons, and other sheer fabrics. You can also use it on lightweight quilting cotton fabrics in a wider foot width. And those more stable fabrics might not need you to press this fold at the beginning. You might just be able to fold your fabric into the foot, but this very lightweight fabric that is a perfect candidate for this rolled hem at the lower edge, this fabric requires me to feed this narrow fold into this seashell whirl. So now that that is started, I'm just going to continue making sure that my fold, the fold is aligned with this little divot, this little part of the toe of the foot, that is the entrance to the seashell whirl. And on the right side, I want my fold to be aligned with this toe of the foot. If you feed in too much fabric, your hem is going to get tucks and weird waves in it. If you feed to little fabric into the little seashell whirl, it's only going to fold the fabric under once, and you're going to see the raw edges on the wrong side. And it takes some practice, especially in different fabrics, so your technique for one fabric might not work as well for a different fabric. So I'm just folding my fabric under, and feeding that fold on the left hand side into the seashell whirl. So you don't need to have this tiny little hem pressed all the way down the length of your hem. And it can be helpful to bump your needle position over to the left one or two times, so that hem gets stitched a little bit closer to that upper fold of the hem, rather than the center. So that fabric is feeding into my seashell, and I wanna keep that raw edge folding under as it's going into the seashell. And if the fabric jumps out of the seashell, you can kind of work it back in, and if there's anywhere along your hem that you need to go back in and unstitch a little bit, and then re-topstitch down with your regular presser foot, it's a lot easier to do once you get most of your hem stitched. It looks like my fabric is starting to jump out of my seashell, so I'm just going to tuck that back in with my stiletto. So stitch slowly, and the way that you align the fabric as it's going under the foot really matters. So on the bed of your machine, as your fabric's getting fed into that foot, make sure that that stays folded, and continue stitching all the way down. This is great, like I said, for delicate fabrics, it's also great for projects where you maybe accidentally didn't leave enough for a hem allowance, and you need to do a tiny little hem. This foot can really help you do that easily. So let's take this out and look at it. So that foot helped us stitch this nice narrow hem, and on the wrong side, because I bumped my needle position over, it's stitching right close next to that fold. Now when I stitched this side, I didn't feed enough fabric into the seashell whirl, so this is what happens. You can see the raw edge a little bit. I didn't get enough in there to double fold it, so make sure you're feeding enough fabric into that seashell, and you can get a nice even flat hem. And this is a great technique for these sheer lightweight fabrics like this chiffon. And sometimes for a very delicate fabric like this, when you use your old hem foot, you might get weird tension, or weird puckers and waves in your rolled hem, and that's where this tissue paper comes in. The tissue paper helps to stabilize these very thin fine fabrics, and then when you're finished, the tissue paper just goes on the bed of your machine, between the fabric and the throat plate, and that fabric gets fed into your rolled hem, and stitched on top of this one layer of tissue paper, and when you're done, it just tears right off. But that tissue paper stabilizes this fine, fine fabric enough, so that you don't get those weird waves, and puckers, and you get a nice, flat, even hem all the way down.