How to Hem a Prom Dress

Happy Mother's Day!


I spent the day doing what mothers do. I hemmed Julia's prom dress! If MY mother hadn't been here to supervise, it probably wouldn't have gotten done.

When we purchased Julia's dress, the boutique owner asked if we knew how to sew. She proceeded to explain how to hem the dress, which saved us $45 in alteration fees. What a sweet lady! We will be sure to visit her first for next year's prom dress.

The technique she taught me is ingenious! With this technique, you don't have to deal with all that crazy fraying polyester. I wish I knew this when I was hemming costumes. If you are not a seamstress, I hope this will help you someday. Here goes...

Step 1. Measure, pin or baste and press.*
I had to shorten so much (5"+) that I cut off a few inches before I basted to get some of it out of my way. You might not need to baste. You might be fine with just pins.

Step 2. Stitch close to the fold with matching thread.
I started with a fresh, sharp needle and matching thread. Stitch as close to the fold as you can. Take care not to stretch any bias edges.

Here's a tip from a Noodlehead tutorial: use an edgestitching foot. Why didn't I think of that? Or at least read that tut a few hours ago?

Step 3. Trim the excess seam allowance to within 1/8" (or less) of the stitched edge.
This was the scary bit for me. Go slowly and don't cut through to the front of the dress!

Step 4. Roll the edge...
I didn't even need to pin this part, but feel free to do so if that works better for you.

...and stitch close to the fold again, encasing the raw edges.

Step 5. Admire your work!
You will probably see two lines of stitching on the wrong side.

One neat row of stitching on the front!

Lovely!
It is a little long, but that's how Princess Kate wore her gown, so it must be the style now!

*Sorry, I didn't take any pictures of the pinning process. I put Julia up on the wooden piano bench, smoothed the dress to the "floor" and pinned along that line. Then I measured to the pins, and marked a chalk line all the way around at that measurement. I folded up the hem at the chalk line, then basted and pressed. There is a small train on this gown, so at first, I measured the 5"+ off the end of the train. When it was basted, it looked too pointy, so I ended up taking another 2" off the tip of the train to round it out.

The other challenging part of this gown was that it has 2 layers of lining, so I had to do 3 hems! I'm so glad it's done. Now we can focus on hair, makeup and jewelry. The fun stuff!