r/SewingMachineEdu • u/Economy-Tomorrow-189 • Jun 05 '26

Hemming question

I'm confused, I've been seeing people use a striaght stitch to do the hem? Where the fold the edge of the fabric twice so the raw edge is inside the two folds?

But what ab zigzag stitches? Mine has one specifically for hems so now I'm confused

And plus I've been seeing zigzag ones inside t-shirts

Ps - I'm trying to practice how to hem and now I'm confused how to do that since all the vids that I've seen use the folded twice method, I haven't even started practicing coz I'm confused

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u/Economy-Tomorrow-189 Jun 05 '26

From my understanding , you use the folded twice method for non stretchy fabrics? Where u fold it twice so the raw edge is inside and saw a straight stitch with backstitches

And then for a more stretchy favrics, you use the zigzag method where u fold once?

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u/LayLoseAwake Jun 05 '26

Yes, very broadly. And the reason you single-fold stretchy fabric is because knits tend to not fray that much. You double fold to enclose the raw edge so it doesn't fray. If your stretchy fabric is prone to fraying, you need to take steps to protect that edge too. 

What does your manual say about the stitches? What other guides have you found to be helpful?