Video:How to Hem a Shirt

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Transcript:How to Hem a Shirt

Hi, I'm Lynn Reynolds for About.com Home. Today I’m going to show you how to hem a shirt.

My husband likes wearing his shirts outside his pants. It can look a little sloppy, especially in a work environment. Today we’re going to learn how to take a shirttail type shirt and make a straight hem all the way around, so that it looks very neat when worn outside the pants.

What You'll Need

Here’s what you’ll need: thread that’s the color of the shirt, a sewing machine, straight pins, a tape measure or ruler, an iron, and scissors.

Measure for Hem Placement

The first step is to measure where you want the shirt to fall. Have your shirt-wearer put it on. I think a nice line is to have the hem about 3 inches below the waistline.

Turn the fabric underneath to about where you want the new hem to fall. Use straight pins to pin the fabric in place. Don’t worry about getting it perfectly straight; we’ll do that later.

(Ouch!)

Ooops! Forgot to mention, be sure to keep your other hand BETWEEN the shirt and your model!

Straighten Out the Hem

Next, we’re going to straighten out our hem. What you want to make sure of is that the sides and the front match. Once you have those matching, the rest is just a straight line.

Cut the fabric about 1 inch above your hemline. You can eyeball this part, it doesn’t need to be precise. Next, iron your new hem in place. This’ll make the sewing part a lot easier.

Iron the Fabric

Now, turn under about 1/4” of the fabric and iron. This will make a neat hem that won’t unravel in the wash.

After you iron, pin the hem.

Sew the Hem

Place your shirt on the machine with hem up. Choose a stitch that’s on the longer side; longer stitches tend to look nicer than shorter ones. Sew the length of the hem, checking the other side of the shirt as you go to make sure everything looks all right.

Iron the Hem One Last Time

Our last step is to iron the hem again, just to make it look nice and crisp.Voila! A straight hem shirt that Mom would be proud of!

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