For today’s tutorial, I am going to share with you a quick and inexpensive way to make DIY hem guide templates. These are handy when you are working on garments or home decor accessory type of projects.
I will recommend using a manila folder, something that is made of natural fiber yet stiff enough to allow you to cleanly fold the fabric. Using your ruler and rotary cutter, you can cut your hem guide templates. However, don’t forget to get rid of the edges on the folder that are not straight.
But what if you don’t have any manila folders? You can use a tagboard paper or really thin cardboard. I would not recommend your regular papers, though. You cannot also use any plastic or acrylic because remember that you are going to iron press the fabric. And if you use those, then the hem guide underneath will melt.
Lastly, I would like to share with you a tip on how to fold fabrics with patterns requiring to, say, for example, fold half of an inch and fold over again half of an inch. This is how you do it, make a hem guide with a measurement of 1 inch but with half of an inch increment. Initially, fold the fabric to 1 inch and iron press. Then, locate the half of an inch measurement, fold, and iron press. As a result, you split the 1 inch you previously made in half. Now you can fold the fabric nice and even giving you a precise hem. Happy sewing!