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.

blind hem without a blind hem foot

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

blind hem without a blind hem foot

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.

blind hem without a blind hem foot

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

blind hem without a blind hem foot

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

blind hem without a blind hem foot

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.

4 Replies to “how to: blind hem stitch without a special foot”

  1. what does the blind hem stitch look like on the machine, can u take a pic of it on your machine so i know which one to look for.

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