A-Line Dress Hemming Tips

An A-line dress gets its name due to the angles of the sides of the dress. The bodice is not separate from the skirt, and the cute fullness is achieved by the angle of the side seams. This style has an effortless and timeless look. It also gives you the perfect building block to add monograms, appliques, pleats, or many other design elements.

Lucy A-Line Dress

When hemming an A-line dress, however, due to the angle, the bottom of the dress is the widest part of the dress. Therefore, when it is to turned it up to hem, there will be excess fabric. We show you in this tutorial, an easy way to ease this fullness into your hem to give you a beautifully finished hem. Use this technique on patterns such as Children’s Corner Lucy, Eleanor, Frannie, Frannie Baby and Aprons.

Instructions

1. Follow construction instructions of the pattern. When it is time to hem the dress, set your machine with a machine stitch length of 4. Stitch ¼” from the bottom edge of the dress, starting and stopping at each side seam.

2. Press ¼” to the inside of the dress, using this lengthened stitch as a guide.

3. As you turn your hem to the inside of the dress, gently pull the bobbin threads to ease in the extra fullness.

4. Press the hem flat.

5. Machine or hand stitch the hem in place.

Instructions by Susan Whitman

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