Hem Facing

In preparation for turning* the skirt of my black wool, I removed the hem facing that's been in place these last five years.

Hem facing from my black wool dress.

Lessons learned:

• The interior hem side of the skirt takes a lot of abuse, even when the exterior side shows little dirt or wear.
• Attaching the facing with tiny stitches just makes more work.
• White material was a bad choice.  Since making this dress, I've examined more original garments, the majority of which had hem facings of brown polished cotton.  Scraps of cotton prints are another, less common, option.  A few dresses (sheers and a couple odd cotton prints) had self-fabric turned hems rather than applied facings.

*Turning: remaking a dress by taking it apart and rotating/reversing the fabric so that stained and worn portions are out of sight.