Making a Rolled Hem…without a serger…or a rolled hem foot

This one is for Amy. She’s a novice and I encouraged her to take the plunge and give it a try. So, she made a list of everything she needed to make a couple of Twirl Skirts for her adorable little girls. She placed a few orders online for fabric and elastic, along with a rolled hem foot. We made a few adjustments to the pattern/tutorial so that she could make a longer skirt and traded a couple million emails back and forth. Tragically, the elastic arrived in the wrong size, so we had to make a few more adjustments. Expectantly, her rolled hem foot was in transit somewhere between China and Uranus. So, I told her to try a zigzag stitch to finish the hem.
I tell you this little bit because often times it isn’t the actual sewing that becomes the challenge, but rather the logistics. Fortunately, once you get that matter sorted out, and read your machine manual, everything else seems to fall into place quite easily.

Once again, I will recommend The Dressmaker’s Technique Bible by Lorna Knight for all sewers, novice and pro, alike.

Now, if you ever find yourself creating a garment from a circle, like the Twirl Skirt found in my Etsy shop, you will be begging for a way to finish the hem without an iron. The easiest way is to roll the hem using a serger. If you don’t have a serger, you can check and see if your machine has a rolled hem foot or if there is a suitable one for sale on the market. You may also try using a zigzag stitch to finish the hem.
So, follow along with the photos as you read through the steps. I hope you enjoy this one, I’m sure many folks out there will find it very handy!


1)You have a piece of fabric that needs a fast and easy finished edge that resembles a rolled hem.
2)Select a zigzag stitch on your machine and set your stitch length one notch above zero and your stitch width to its widest setting. Mine happens to be 0.5 and 6.0. You can choose a different length and width; this is just a good starting point.
3)Place the fabric in you machine so that when you sew, the stitch falls just off the edge of the fabric.
4)Run your stitch down the fabric. You may need to encourage the feed slightly.
5)If you would like you may run the stitch a second time to get a more uniform and secure finish.
6)This is what my fabric looked like after the second round of zigzagin’.
7)This is the rolled hem of my skirt, done with a serger, just so that you may compare.