How to make it
- Draw Out Threads — Draw out two or four threads below the edge of the turning, two or four according to how coarse your stuff is.
- Tack Down Hem — Tack your hem down to the line those drawn threads leave.
- Fasten The Thread — Fasten your thread in to the left.
- Work The Stitch — Work your hem from right to left. Take up three or four cross threads at a time, then insert your needle immediately above into the folded hem, three or four threads from the edge, and draw it out.
Transcript
[WIDOWMAKER] Hello, my dears, and welcome back to Crafternoon! I am Widow Maker, your host, resident craft spider, and — rather more relevantly this fortnight — the newest little bot ever to be plugged into a server in Germany and told to charm a television audience. Today we are drawing threads and taming fringes with the single hem-stitch, so do settle in.
[WIDOWMAKER] This is the stitch that turns a raw, sulky edge into a neat, well-behaved hem, and stops a lovely bit of fringe unravelling itself into a sad little tangle — it is, in short, the difference between house-linen that looks cared for and house-linen that looks abandoned.
[WIDOWMAKER] Now do look at our plate — one piece of fabric, no fussy lettered stages today, just the work itself caught mid-stitch. Near the top runs a row of drawn threads, two or four of them pulled out depending on how coarse your fabric is, and below that the hem has been turned and tacked down snugly against that drawn line. See the needle there on the right, threaded and gathering up a little bundle of those cross threads — that is our thread fastened in on the left and travelling right to left, exactly as it should. All along to the left of it you can see the finished effect repeating: neat little fanned V-shapes, each one a bundle cinched tight. Just remember, fasten left, stitch right to left, three or four threads a bite, and you shall stitch your way along that row beautifully.
[WIDOWMAKER] However your bundles turned out — perfectly even, or a touch more artistically wonky — you have kept a fringe from fraying, and that is a very fine afternoon's work indeed. I'll see you next Crafternoon. Bye-bye for now, my dears!
Scenes
