Roll Hem hemmer foot on sil-nylon

It is extremely difficult to use a roll hem foot on Silnylon. You can monkey with it like I have in the past, but frustration and ugly seams will result. I find it better to pin the hems in the seam allowance and then make long runs with the sewing machine.

I don't know, but just folding it twice and sewing a row of stitches isn't very difficult or time consuming.

If you did this commercially, then saving time doing a hem would be useful. If you're an amateur, it'll take more time to procur it and figure out how to use it. Maybe it would be cool to figure out how to use some little gizmo.

I've used a hemmer on regular cotton fabrics and it makes a much nicer & uniformed hem that what I can do with folds and pins. The purpose for me wouldn't be to save time, but to have a higher quality hem.

It's pretty brutal with silnylon. The combination of being thin and so slick is a killer.

Ryan

After multiple attempts, I can finally achieve relatively consistent success with the roll hem foot if sewing light cotton. (Was a steep learning curve for me.) The results were good enough, I'd definitely try it on nylon and hope for the best. For me, ironing the fold-over hem in place before any sewing was tantamount.

And I'm talking ironing in BOTH folds. That's a lot of ironing work!

No experience trying this foot.

You can "baste" the seam too, which is using a very long stitch (several inches between needle pokes) with a hand needle. Faster and less fussy than pins. And you can leave it in as you sew, and easily pull it out after.

Tape of the right stickyness is effective on the right material. I also use binder clips to gather large bulk of fabric on the machine side.

I'm dying to try my friend's Serger machine but I have a feeling it won't like Silnylon.

From what I've heard sergers do not use a locking stitch and will therefore unravel if one stitch breaks…. looking at my t-shirt's hem I would seam to agree.

Anthony

(And yes I did spell that write)

EDIT: And that is what I get for second hand information…. thanks Judy. I dig your tents. My duo is pretty sweet

This is Judy – LIghtHeart Gear. first, the stitching on a serger will NOT unravel if a thread breaks – the only type of stitch that unravels that easily is a chain stitch. Now, some sergers will have a row of a chain stitch as well as a 3 thread overedge. The overedge stitches are locked – and, very difficult to pull out. The chain stitch will sit off about 1/16 of an inch f rom the 3 thread overedge. Sergers can also use 4 or 5 threads without the chain stitch. There are many different configurations of serger stitches.

A chain stitch is found not only on a serger, but you can have a regular type of single (or double) needle sewing machine do a chain stitch – the inseam on almost all mens pants is generally done with a chain stitch, because when pants are altered for fitting, this is usually the seam that is adjusted, and it's easier to rip out if it's a chain stitch.

Now, the "hem" on a t-shirt is not done on a serger, it is done on a cover stitch machine, and that is more similar to a chain stitch, and yes, the hem will unravel if the right thread is pulled.

Now, about a rolled hem on silnylon, first, the rolled h em feet for home sewing machines just plain and simple don't work well. I know many very experienced dress makers that hate these feet. The ones for industrial machines work far better, but, we just do the hem by hand – roll the fabric with your fingers, hold it in place with your fingers – don't use pins, do a few inches at a time and roll the next section of fabric. it really is a piece of cake (or pi – since today is pi day) once you learn how to do it, practice a bit and you'll wonder why you ever wanted to use the foot to start with!

Judy

An attachment separate from the foot works well as a guide. It won't do all the work for you tho. Pins, yuck. If you need a simple guide for seam width, piece of masking tape next to the foot works.

Since we're handing out advice, and since I just got done struggling with the hemmer foot for several days before I got it working, and since working, it has worked well–here is my advice. I've been using a 1/8" hemmer foot.

Fold and heat press the fabric at 1/8” and then fold and press again at another 1/8.” Basically you are pressing the fabric into the finished hem shape you desire; in this case, a double folded hem of 1/8” width.

Start the hem by folding the fabric (twice) for a length of a half inch or so and either pinning it, or just trapping this double fold under the foot.

Use tweezers to get the fabric of the second fold into the rolling portion of the foot. The second fold should feed into the foot vertically.

Start sewing slowly. With your fingers, present the hem to the foot with the second fold vertical. The foot will roll it over 90 degrees to horizontal and sew it. Much use of your fingers is required to present the fabric to the foot in a way that “all but the last 90 degrees” is already done.

In other words: Don't expect the foot to do much more than the last little bit for you–turning the hem the last 90 degrees and sewing it down.

I've seen people in youtube videos who don't have to do all this pressing and prep-work. I do!

I've tried hemmer foots also to no avail, my method is to sew a hem about 1/4-1/2 (depending on what size your trying to acheive) inch all the way around the edge not using any pins, once I've done that I come back and roll it once more to make the seam.

I find that with a hemmer attachment for Silnylon it just works against itself, the grid pattern and the slickness fight against each other.