Last week, I decided to finally figure out how to do a rolled hem on my serger. Other than finishing seams in general, the rolled hem is the stitch I most look forward to using.
I was making the PinkFig Lily top as a dress for K* which has rolled hems on the neckline and ruffle bottom. I figured out all the settings and such for the rolled hem and after many practice strips decided to brave serging the peasant dress. Well, it didn't go so well. When I finished, the rolled hem on the neckline was pulling away from the fabric in a couple of areas. Not Good. So I redid it. Still, not good. At that point I couldn't redo the neckline again, it was already looking too large for K* after the second try.
I thought I'd just call it quits, but while at piano practice, I decided I could just cut the upper dress part and sleeves off and make a jumper of sorts. So I came home and sliced the top part off.
I also still wanted to try another new technique, shirring with elastic thread on the bobbin. The top part was way to large & needed some type of elastic somewhere to fit K* better anyway, so why not, it couldn't get worse right? The Lily top does have shirring as part of the pattern, I decided to shir it just under the ruffle.
Luckily the shirring worked out fine. Yay! I had some worries before I started since I've read online that some Brother machines have a bit of trouble with the elastic thread part. And except for one small spot, the rolled hem on the ruffle edges turned out fine.
I'm still not sure how I feel about the jumper overall, it feels thrown together to me and I wonder if the top ruffle should be a little narrower, if I should have made a few adjustments rather than just cutting the top of and using it how it was, the straps are a bit loose and things like that. Because it's not what I intended to make probably explains why I'm not thrilled about it. But at least I didn't waste most of the fabric, just two sleeves worth, and K* seems to like it. She wore it to school today, so I snapped a few photos real quick before heading to school.
I've done a bit of reading online trying to find out how I can prevent the rolled hem edge from coming away from the fabric in the future and it seems the most basic problem is learning to not guide the fabric to the left away from the knife. That sort of makes sense why I wouldn't encounter as much trouble on a straight edge like the ruffle and had issues with the more curved neckline area. Oh well. I guess I need a lot more practice. I am a little disappointed, but hopefully I figure it all out. I have some more fabric in my stash I may attempt to make as the Lily top in the near future.
Today I just came across a few more blogs about rolled hems, I'm so glad others post what they've figured out for me to read. I may try my stitch width at 5 next time.
the PinkFig Lily top
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