If you’ve ever tried sewing chiffon, you probably know this feeling:
Your machine eats the fabric, the seams look wavy and messy, and the hem… not professional.
When I started making belly dance costumes, chiffon honestly terrified me.
But after sewing yards and yards of it over the last decade, I found simple tricks that make chiffon behave — even if you’re a beginner.
This video is part of the Beginner’s Guide to Belly Dance Costume Making series, and today I’ll show you 5 easy tips that instantly make chiffon easier to sew and give you a clean, professional finish.
Let’s get started!
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Tip 1. Don’t Cut with Scissors
Neat sewing starts even before you touch your sewing machine. When you cut a straight line with a pair of scissors, you think you’re cutting straight, but as soon as you move the fabric, it’s not straight anymore.
Instead, make a snip at the selvage of the fabric, grab the ends with your hands, and rip!
And you get perfectly straight edges!
For other types of edges, place weights or pins on patterns and fabric, and cut one layer at a time as best as you can. Use a sharp pair of scissors or a rotary blade.
Tip 2. Use the Right Needle
For chiffon, you can use universal needles, but make sure to use the right size. Size 65/9 – 70/10 is recommended for chiffon and other lightweight fabrics.
My favorite is these Schmetz Universal needles, and a pack of 5 costs about $7.
Tip 3. Don’t Backstitch
So you learned you should always backstitch when you start to sew. But if you do that with chiffon, the fabric gets pulled into the needle hole and gets jammed!
There are many solutions for this, but the one that doesn’t require any other material is this.
Simply skip backstitching.
Instead, leave long tails of threads at the beginning and end, so once you finish sewing, you can tie them by hand.
If your fabric still gets pulled into the hole, you can try placing a piece of scotch tape over the hole.
Or try placing tissue paper under the fabric and sewing the paper and fabric together. You can just tear away the paper afterwards. These options will help prevent the machine from eating your fabric.
Tip 4. Use Shorter Stitch Length
When you use a long stitch length for chiffon, it may come out puckered or bunched up.
So try using a short stitch length of 1.5-2mm, and it’ll create a smoother finish.
Tip 5. Learn 3 Hemming Techniques
If you’re making dance skirts, hemming will make a huge difference in the quality of the finished product. So let me share with you 3 beginner-friendly hemming techniques for chiffon fabric.
1. Zigzag Stitch
This method is a little time-consuming, but most beginner-friendly.
This one requires a 1cm (3/8in) seam allowance. So add this seam allowance to your skirt length.
First, do a straight stitch with an 8mm (5/16in) seam allowance. I’ll be using white thread against purple fabric here, so you can see the thread, but for yours, use a matching color thread.
Then, using the straight stitch as a guideline, fold the edge towards the wrong side. Here, make sure you see the stitches on the wrong side. Then do a regular zigzag stitch over the fold. The needle should fall on the outside of the fabric at the right-most position, and this zigzag stitch should encase the fold of the fabric and the first line of stitches.
Then trim the excess fabric on the wrong side. Carefully cut the fabric close to the stitches, but don’t cut the stitches or the main fabric.
That’s it! A beautiful and clean finish.
2. Narrow Rolled Hem
This is another technique using a regular sewing machine, but you’ll need a special foot called a rolled hem foot. It looks like this, and it has this curled channel at the end. This helps the fabric edge roll and fold as you sew.
The seam allowance for this technique is double the seam width of your rolled hem foot. If yours is a 5mm (1/4in) seam width, the seam allowance is 1cm.
To make a rolled hem, attach the rolled hem foot, and first fold the edge of the fabric twice towards the wrong side by the size of the seam width of your rolled hem foot. Fold over and place pins for the first 3cm (1 1/4in) or so.
Place it under the presser foot, and do a straight stitch. Hold the threads behind the needle just so the fabric doesn’t get jammed. Go several stitches slowly, then pause with the needle down, and lift the presser foot.
Now take the edge of the fabric and wiggle it so the fold gets caught in the curled channel of the presser foot. Once it’s in there, lower the presser foot, and continue stitching.
Hold the edge of the fabric with your right hand towards the wrong side by about the seam allowance, and gently hold the edge of the fabric down with your left fingers, so the fabric gets curled into the presser foot easily.
And you have a nice, rolled hem! If you’re new at this, start practicing using a straight edge. Curved edges are trickier, so I recommend you practice using this rolled hem foot and get used to it first.
3. Curly Lettuce Hem
I love this curly lettuce hem. This technique is a little more advanced, but so cute and elevates your outfit right away!
All you need is a fishing line. You want a kind that’s clear and keeps its shape like this. When you look at the label of a fishing line, it comes in different weights. I recommend you get 20-40lb. Get a nice spool for your project since it’s hard to estimate how much of the fishing line you need.
And for this, you need a 5mm (1/4in) seam allowance.
To start, leave a nice, long tail of the fishing line, and place it on the wrong side of the skirt, about 5mm (1/4in) from the edge. Wrap the fishing line with the fabric like this, and do a zigzag stitch encasing this folded fabric and the fishing line at the same time.
You can use a regular presser foot for this, but it helps to gently pull the threads and fishing line from the back of the needle to keep it going. And make sure the needle is falling on both sides of the wrapped fishing line.
Keep wrapping the fishing line as you sew. And sometimes, it’s good to pause and slide the fabric along the fishing line. The fabric can still move at this point, and you can make sure the fabric is not bunching up, and it’s distributed evenly along the fishing line.
To finish up, if it’s at the end of a panel, slide the fabric and make sure the hem has nice waves throughout, and trim it, leaving about 5cm (2in). Then I like to bend it and align the end with the rest of the fishing line on the wrong side. Prepare a double-threaded needle, and wrap the entire thing in a thread casing like below. Wrap very tightly, so the fishing line won’t unravel.
Or, if your hem is continuous like the hem of a circle skirt with no slit, then simply overlap the ends and continue stitching. Overlap the ends by 10cm (4in) or so to give it some room to slide inside the casing.
This is a great hemming technique for a chiffon skirt hem. The hem is so pretty, and it gives the skirt more volume without adding much weight. Oh, and actually, this technique is very forgiving. If you’re not happy with how you cut the hem, the fishing line curls will disguise any imperfection.
Ready to Level Up?
If you want to learn more hemming techniques and make a flowy, voluminous chiffon skirt, check out my Advanced Circle Skirt course! It’s available inside the All Access Membership, where you can access 19 other courses on creating beautiful belly dance outfits!
Learn more about the All-Access Membership here!
I hope you can now sew chiffon with more confidence! Try these tips using scrap fabric today.
If you enjoyed this video, check my online fabric shop guide next. You’ll see great sources for buying chiffon for yourself or your troupe’s costuming!
Thanks for reading, and keep sparkling!
P.S. Pin this image on your sewing trick board!
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