Sew and Tell: Allie from Meadow Rue

Greetings Cotton and Curls readers, Allie from Meadow Rue here! I'm so incredibly thrilled and absolutely flattered that Liz chose me for her next Sew and Tell. Thanks a million, lady!

Thrifting has been an evolution for me. In the beginning, I thrifted mostly vintage sheets and fabric remnants. Eventually, I ventured into clothing by purchasing an insane amount of men's button up shirts, lots of heavy sweaters, and the occasional pair of jeans to refashion. Fitted skirts were off limits. Even if they fit in the waist, I could never see the potential in refashioning a skirt. You could call it a mental block, I call it skirt anxiety. I decided to get over that last week. 

Those shoes are a thrifted find too! Head on over to Meadow Rue for my weekly Sew Thrifted posts (almost 100% of them inspired by Liz's DIY page).

This navy beauty was a perfect fit in the waist (with awesome vertical welt pockets), but was a length that should never have seen the light of day. Upon trying it on, I immediately envisioned my favorite skirt ever, and I was sold. My skirt anxiety disappeared. The only alteration necessary was to bring the skirt up to knee level. But I wanted to take the time to finally learn the blind hem. I was ready. Are you? Let's go! 

1. Figure out if your skirt has a lining and where it's attached. Mine was attached at the waist, and also along the sides of the slit. 2. Snip the lining where it is attached to the slit with fabric shears, following the seam closely. Now the lining should be free flowing and attached only at the waist. 3. Measure the dimensions of the current hem. The hem on this skirt was 1.5" wide. 4. Try the skirt on and pin horizontally where your knee is located when you're wearing the skirt. Now, take the skirt off and measure the width of your hem below that pin and draw a horizontal chalk line (with a ruler) across your skirt, on both the front and back. Make sure the amount that you'll be cutting off is consistent across your entire line. 5. Bring the lining of the skirt up through the waist so that it's not in your way. Cut the skirt along the chalk line, cutting only one layer of fabric at a time. 6. Bring the lining of the skirt back in through the waist and cut the lining along the new edge of your skirt. 7. Serge the bottom of your skirt only with a simple overlock stitch. If you don't have a serger, you can do a double rolled hem (where you'd measure 2x the hem width below your knee to draw your chalk line). But maybe consider a serger? I promise it'll make your life all rainbows and butterflies. 8. Now serge just the lining. In this case, I realized that I would need to remove about six inches of fabric from the lining so that it didn't show where the new slit would be. I eyeballed 6" and serged that much off the bottom of the lining. This will be the lining's finished edge. Since it won't be seen, there's no need to hem it. 9. Iron the newly serged edge of your skirt towards the inside (so that wrong sides are together), using the same hem width you measured in step three. *Consult your sewing machine manual for the blind hem process. In this case, I'll show you what my Janome sewing machine required* 10. Fold the hem you just ironed under, so that right sides of the fabric are together. The serged edge should not be lined up exactly with the fabric fold, but should be offset 1/8". Pin. 11. Put on your sewing machine's blind hem foot, and select the blind hem stitch, if it has one. Be sure to set the stitch width so that the needle just barely catches the fold of the fabric. Sew around the entire bottom of the skirt. 12. Seam rip your skirt's slit so that it is about 6" in length. My skirt had an existing slit, so the edges were nice and finished. 13. Reinforce the top of your slit with a very narrow zig zag stitch. Be sure to shorten your stitch length so that you get a nice durable stitch. You're done! Enjoy the fruits of your patience...