Do you have a fear of sewing hems on knit fabrics? Don't fret, many of us do too! In this post, I'm excited to share with you a quick and easy tip to sewing a hemline on knits with no stress at all! The secret is the use of a coffee filter as a stabilizer - seriously, it works! After trying this, I'm pretty sure you'll never go back to your old method and you will have the confidence to sew knits without fear!
This exciting sewing tip is being shared with you as an excerpt from the full Sewing With Knits MasterClass course. This is one of our most popular courses, if you haven't already checked it out I encourage you to take a peek and pick up a copy of the course today, or join the Sewing With Cinnamon community for more sewing tips, tricks, and community interaction.
Now onto the tutorial... All you need is a plain coffee filter (white or natural) and a knit fabric project to test this out. It can be any sewing project, it doesn't have to be just for dolls. Although, if it's larger than the coffee filter, you'll probably need several to get the job done!
Wasn't that amazing? Are you ready to try this out yourself?
Applying this method can help you approach sewing patterns designed for knit fabrics with confidence! Be sure to check out our Summertime Styles With Knit Fabrics to see more patterns where you can apply your new skills! Here are a few suggestions to get you started:
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Thanks, everyone!
The Pixie Faire Team
508 Comments
Thanks for the tip.
I’m thinking to try my embroidery tear away stabilizer and see if that works the same. Great video. Thank you from Florida
I use a stretch needle and stitch, and on the shoulder seams I like to stabilize it with a thin piece of ribbon. If the knit is very thin I sometimes use some wash away stabilizer that is used for embroidery projects.
Hum I didn’t have sound up. Its 2:30am. I’ld wake the house. I’m assuming because coffee filter or tissue paper as many say in comments, keeps the feed from touching the fabric, it won’t stretch. Wish I knew that a couple days ago. Someone , without asking me, gave me shirts to shorten. Soft slipper knit tees. Light weight knits. I hate those. I helped h err out hoping it would lead to Christ. I hope she is happy with the hem. I was not. Sometime I’ll try light paper under an edge sewing on knits
I always pin it in a dbl fold and use the straight stretch stitch and it works well! this is a great idea, thank you! Thinner stretch fabric will stretch when I stitch it so I will try the coffee filter. For hems on any fabric I dbl fold and pin with the long pins along the hem not across the hem and as I sew i slide the pins out. I was manufacturing the doll clothes. I would buy up the fabric and cut 50 to 100 outfits then pin them all and run through the machine. It worked well with flannel I was always running out of nightys, pjs and diapers, I can’t do it anymore but it was fun! Now I sew just what I want in an amount for me!! I have trouble on starts with any fabric so as it starts to sew I start to pull on the 2 threads and it helps get the start going better and not going into the machine.