Lace Shirt, DAY 3 -- Creating a Scalloped Hem

I decided to go for the scalloped shirt back hem, an idea I mentioned in yesterday's post.

As you know the shirt fronts, which are lace, are trimmed to the scalloped edge of the lace.  Here's how the lace appears uncut for just this purpose (not necessarily for a hem of course).  I love that the design incorporates this option.



You can see below (sort of) that the back of the shirt, which I subsequently hemmed roughly 1/2", looks too long compared to the scalloped lace front.



So here's what I did:

First, I lined up a piece of my remaining lace with my back edge, and traced the scallop shapes (on the wrong side of the shirting), paying particular attention to the places where the lace ends and the cotton shirting begins.  I wanted the transition to look smooth.



Next, I cut a facing strip roughly 2" wide, tracing the slight curve of my original back pattern piece.  I used gingham because I didn't have enough light gray shirting.



I pinned the facing to the shirt bottom, right sides together, and stitched my scallops.  I turned in the side edges so that no raw edges would be visible when I turned the facing to the inside.  (These will get stitched to the side seams invisibly.)





Next, I trimmed as close to the scallops as I could, clipping where necessary.



I now turned the facing to the inside of the shirt.  With the aid of a point presser and an iron, I carefully shaped each scallop, making sure a scant 1/8" of the gray shirting was visible from the wrong side of the shirt, guaranteeing that no gingham will peek out the bottom. 



The right side now looked like this:



I edgestitched the scallops to keep them crisp-looking and to hold the facing in place.

I wasn't sure how to finish the top edge of the facing.  I could fold the raw edge under and handstitch it in place, but the thick horizontal seam would show through the shirt when I ironed it.

In the end, I decided to add a line of topstitching parallel to the original edgestitching, and to carefully trim the facing up to the stitch line.  Since the scallop edges are on the bias, they don't fray.





There you have it: a lovely scalloped hem. 



And the facing is decorative too!



This is a technique you can use on any garment -- on a hem, neckline, or sleeve edge.

Have you ever made a scalloped hem?  How did you do it?

Have a great day, everybody!