Tutorials

10 June, 2025

Tutorial: How to do a 3-Thread Serger Rolled Hem on Chiffon

beckarahn2025-06-10T18:47:58-05:00Spoonflower & Fabric Design, Tutorials|0 Comments

Last week I went down a rabbit hole of trying to learn how to use the narrow rolled hem foot for my new Bernina sewing machine. The main thing I have learned is that there is a major learning curve. But the other thing I noticed was that there are a lot of half tutorials for how to use that foot and none that actually show finishing a project with it. (Or at least none that I found). Specifically I couldn’t find information about how to do corners, like when you are hemming a rectangular scarf.

So this tutorial is not how to do that, because honestly I think it’s basically impossible. Instead I decided to go back to my own tried-and-true method for making a narrow hem: the 3-thread rolled hem on my serger. You can see what it looks like in the photo above. It’s an especially neat way to finish the edges of rectangular scarves especially if you are using a fabric like chiffon or crepe de chine. I needed to hem a batch of scarves and the reason I was looking for an alternate finish is that it does need some specialty thread and with the demise of Joann, I wasn’t sure if I could get any locally and I wasn’t sure I had the colors I needed.

Setting up my Serger

I have a Brother 1034D serger. I am going to talk about the settings I use with that specific machine and one very specific fabric: Spoonflower’s Chiffon. If you have a different serger, I hope this tutorial will give you a starting point but you’ll have to look at the instructions for your machine to see how to set it up and create a rolled hem.

The very bare bones instructions that came with my serger say to remove the left needle, remove the stitch finger, and adjust the thread tension and you are ready to go. It took me many many many many yards of experiments to figure out what those settings are. Here’s what works for me:

Yellow (left needle) not used.
Pink (right needle) 3.5
Green (upper looper) 2
Blue (lower looper) 5

Differential .7
Length R
Width 5.5

Remember, these settings are a starting point. Use the selvedges of your fabric to stitch a few inches and see if you like the way the hem looks.

Threads & Needle

I use two different threads to make a rolled hem: a cone of regular serger thread and 2 cones of wooly nylon thread all in matching colors. I have gotten my threads from Threadart.com and they’ve always worked well for me. I thread the serger with the regular thread in the needle and the wooly nylon in the upper and lower loopers. If you’ve never worked with wooly nylon, it’s a little unruly. It fluffs out when it’s not under tension and it can be difficult to thread through the eyes in the serger. I used a little Sew Fine Thread Gloss on the ends of the threads to stick it together this time and it was very helpful.

Because I was working with chiffon, I swapped the serger needle for a 60/8 microtex needle.

Fabric

My project was hemming scarves made from Spoonflower’s chiffon fabric. I print 2 yards of fabric and cut it lengthwise down the center to make two scarves approximately 26×72 inches. The chiffon is translucent so you can see the print on both sides, although the wrong side is muted. A rolled hem makes a really nice finish that looks great from both sides. You can use this technique on other fabrics, of course but you will need to adjust the serger settings and needle choice for each different kind of fabric.

Your Most Essential Tool: Spray Starch

After a lot of trial and error, the tool that has been the absolute most help to making a beautiful hem is spray starch. I bought mine at the grocery store: Niagara Heavy Finish Ironing Spray Starch

I hang the fabric from the shower curtain rod in the bathroom using binder clips and some S hooks and spray the edges all the way around the rectangle. You want it to be about the consistency of tissue paper when it dries. I let mine dry overnight usually. I like to do the spray in the shower because the starch can make surfaces like the floor kind of slippery and this way the extra starch just washes away when I turn on the shower.

Ready, Set, Stitch.

I stitch scarves one side at a time. My serger has a cutter, so I try to trim off at least 1/8 inch of the edge of the fabric to get really clean edges.

My best tip for stitching is to be smooth and steady. I try to have the scarf straightened out so I can feed it through the machine without stopping to untangle or unfold it. I try to keep a consistent speed without a bunch of stops and starts. I try to make sure that I am not pulling or distorting the fabric as it goes through the machine. Chiffon is very prone to wiggle and skew so I try to minimize that as much as possible. I’ll be honest, it took me lots of practice. I got a cheap thrift store sheer curtain to practice on when I was trying to figure it out so I didn’t have to worry about using “good fabric”.

If you wobble or somehow make a mistake on a side, start again about 1/8 inch away from the first line of stitching and try to do the whole side again.

Corners

The best way I’ve found to make a clean corner is to not try to turn a corner. I stitch each side as a separate pass. Usually I start with a long side (with the fabric grain) and stitch the whole side. To stitch the next side, I start with the cutter blade up, turn the fabric so I am feeding a short side into the serger, and hold the previous thread tail straight out to the right side. This helps the edge of the fabric feed into my machine smoothly without anything getting caught on the foot or cutter and crumpled up. (Your mileage may vary.) Once I’ve gone around all four sides this way, the corners each have a tail of thread left on them.

I trim this thread tail about 1/8 inch long and use a lighter to gently melt the remaining thread tail. Be careful at this step that you don’t scorch the fabric. I’ve also used a dot of fabric glue or fray check to finish the corners but melting seems to be the neatest.

Wash it.

The last step is to wash out the starch. I use the “speed” cycle on my washer and tumble dry on gentle with a dryer sheet because the chiffon will build up static like crazy. The photo above is taken before the starch was washed out so the fabric looks a little crispy and stiff. It will soften up a lot with washing.

One Last Tip.

I hope this tutorial can help as a jumping off point for you to try your first rolled hem. One last tip I have is to take a photo of your serger settings before you change everything (so you can easily set it back to what you were using before) AND take a photo of the settings when you have it set up for the rolled hem for the next time you want to do one. I have those photos saved in a folder on my phone and it’s so easy to swap back and forth without a lot of hassle.

15 April, 2025

Mini Tutorial: How to Tie a Square Knot

beckarahn2025-04-15T11:46:43-05:00Tutorials, Videos|Comments Off on Mini Tutorial: How to Tie a Square Knot

I use square knots often in class projects and I had a whole group recently that had never done one before so I thought I would make a very fast video tutorial. When I learned to tie a square knot in Girl Scouts a zillion years ago, we learned the mneumonic “left over right, right over left” to help remember the steps. In a class I took a few days ago she said “short over long, short over long”. Both of those work great!

Think to yourself “left over right, right over left” or “short over long” as you watch my hands tie the square knot in this video.

11 March, 2025

International Art & Found Day 2025

beckarahn2025-03-11T11:01:26-05:00An Artist's Life, Freebies & Patterns|2 Comments

One of my goals for my business this year was to “Bring more joy.” and tomorrow’s project is going to do exactly that. I am participating in International Art & Found Day, a day when thousands of artworks from artists all over the world will be placed within their local communities for neighboring residents to find. #artandfoundday

I found out about this from a follow artist friend and it happens to land on my Dad’s birthday. What better way to celebrate (since my dad is also an artist) than to share some art out in the world. And when I read the history of the project, the reason that the founder chose March 12 is because it was her dad’s birthday too.

The idea is that artists package up any kind of art and put it out in the world for others to find. Tomorrow is supposed to be pretty nice weather, so I am going to take a walk and put things in my neighborhood. I will be sharing photos on my Instagram, kind of like a scavenger hunt.

According to the website right now, there are 1600+ artists participating from 47 different countries. That link will let you check the map and see if there is some art happening near you. If not, I am ALSO going to hide a couple of photos on my website for a virtual art drop on Wednesday March 12. If you find one of those photos and email me a screen shot I will send you an art drop surprise.

What art am I going to share? I always make a sample along with my students when I teach a class so I have all kinds of cute felt animals: frogs, sheep, toucans, cats, dogs. I have more samples than I will ever need so I am really excited to share these and send them off to new homes.

19 February, 2025

Preventing and Untying Knots in your Embroidery

beckarahn2025-02-19T11:37:22-06:00Embroidery, Tutorials|Comments Off on Preventing and Untying Knots in your Embroidery

One of the most frustrating things about hand embroidery is when your thread ties itself in knots while you are stitching. I thought I would write a couple of tips to help prevent knots and how to untie them when they happen.

Preventing Knots

After you have threaded your needle, take a few seconds to “condition the thread”. That means pinching the eye of the needle so that it doesn’t come unthreaded and then running the length of the thread through your fingers a few times while you pull on it gently. What does conditioning do? It helps to push some extra twist out of your thread. Less twist means fewer knots.

As you stitch, some stitch movements can build up extra twist in your thread, especially with stitches that wrap around themselves, like french knots or twisted chain. Keep an eye on the extra thread as you stitch. If you see it start to twist back on itself, that is a knot waiting to happen. You can let go of extra twist by picking up your work and dropping the needle, allowing the extra twist to spin the needle around and fall out of the thread. Then you can go back to stitching.

Untying Knots

The most common kind of knot to get while you are stitching is a slip knot. They happen when the thread starts to twist up and a loop slips through another one. When you see a knot starting, the best thing to do is stop stitching and don’t pull it tighter.

A slip knot looks like a loop with a knot at the base of it and you will see two “legs” coming out of the bottom. If you pull on one side, the knot will tighten up, but if you pull on the other side, the knot will unravel easily. It’s hard to tell which side is which by just looking at it because it’s all based on how your thread twisted, but a gentle tug on each leg will usually show you how to loosen it. If you accidentally pull it too tight and nothing is slipping loose, you can sometimes unravel it by slipping your needle into the knot part and wiggling it around a little to loosen it up and allow the threads to slip.

13 February, 2025

Picot Beaded Edge: A Micro Tutorial

beckarahn2025-02-13T14:41:28-06:00Tutorials|3 Comments

I learned how to stitch this picot beaded edge from a friend a bunch of years ago and one of my students in class reminded me about it today, so I thought I’d make a very quick micro tutorial and show you how it works.

First you need some beads, needle, thread, and something to stitch the edging on. For this example, I made a heart shape from two layers of felt. You can stitch around anything, but a circle is the easiest shape to start with if you’ve never tried this before. I am stitching with #8 perle cotton embroidery thread, a chenille needle (which is my favorite for embroidery) and some size 8 seed beads. This works with almost any kind of beads, but you just have to make sure that they fit over your needle and thread at least twice.

Thread your needle and tie a knot. I start by making a stitch between the two layers of felt so that I can hide the knot inside.

For your very first stitch, you will pick up 3 beads on the needle. Then move over about two-beads-width and make a stitch through the layers of felt from back to front. You want to stitch in about 1/16th of an inch from the cut edge of the felt.
Pass your needle through the last bead again from bottom to top.
For the rest of the picot stitches, you will add 2 beads to the needle. Then stitch through the layers of felt once again about 2 beads width away from your previous stitch.
Continue in the same pattern by bringing your needle up again through the last bead.

Once you’ve worked around the outside of your shape, continue adding picots until you meet up at your starting stitch.

To join the last stitch, add just one bead and then go back through the very first bead of the first stitch from top to bottom.

Make a tiny stitch and tie a knot right at the base of that bead and then you can bring the thread through the felt layers to bury the end and trim it off.

23 October, 2024

Tutorial: Leaf printing with Bleach

beckarahn2024-10-23T13:51:06-05:00Tutorials|1 Comment

I had kind of a quiet weekend and decided that was a great excuse to play with something fun. My sister sent me a TikTok video of someone printing leaves on a sweatshirt with bleach. It was more a “performance” than really a tutorial, so I used what I know about discharge or bleach dyeing and made myself a shirt. I walked over the nearby craft store and got a couple of cotton t-shirts in nice autumn colors. On the way back, I collected a big handful of maple leaves. I pressed these under a heavy book while I ate lunch so that they would be as flat as possible for printing.

Instead of using liquid bleach, I used Soft Scrub with bleach, which is like a thick paste, and a 1 inch flat brush. (You could also use the gel version.) I tucked a piece of cardboard inside the shirt to keep the bleach from soaking through. I laid each leaf on a piece of aluminum foil and painted the back side with a generous layer of soft scrub. Then I flipped it over and pressed it onto the shirt. I put gloves on for this step because I know my hands would itch all afternoon if I covered them in cleanser. I was careful to press all around the edges of the leaf to make sure I got that maple leaf outline. I let the leaves sit on the shirt for about half an hour for the bleach to do its thing.

You never know what color bleach will come out on colored fabrics. My olive green shirt bleached to a great apricot orange color! The orange shirt didn’t work quite as well and I have a couple of theories about that. First the orange was a lighter, heathered color with more polyester and so there might have not been as much color there to react to the bleach. Second I noticed that my soft scrub was drying out quickly on a warm windy day and so it wasn’t nearly as wet when I got to painting on to the leaves for the second shirt. That may have made the bleach less effective. This photo was the shirts after I had peeled off the leaves and the softscrub was basically dry. When I was done, I put the shirts into the washer and dryer to rinse out any extra soft scrub. It was a quick, fun project and I got a great t-shirt that I wore this week. If you try it out, send me a photo!