My Guide to Blind Hemming

I recently got a brand new sewing machine with a blind hem foot! Extremely excited to use this new tool I put it on and looked in the instruction manual. What I found was the most cryptic explanation and diagrams I had ever seen. It took forever to even figure out how to fold the hem in the correct way, and afterwards realized how simple it really was! So here is my hopefully simpler explanation of how to make a machine blind hem.
The first step is to fold the hem over first about .5" and then again however large you want the hem to be, mine is about 1.5". You then pin the hem all the way down.



After doing this fold the entire hem the opposite way so only 1/8th of an inch is showing.



This is when you move to the sewing machine. The blind hemming foot for your machine should be easy to pick out as it has a guide to butt the hem up against and ensure that all of the straight stitches go into the correct spot.



Your machine should also have a special stitch just for this, for both stretch and non-stretch fabrics. They'll look similar to this:



Now you sew. Make sure that the needle just barely catches the left edge of the fabric to allow for the least amount of thread showing on the front. You can adjust the stitch width to correct for this, or adjust the screw on the foot itself. Also, make sure that the straight part of the stitch is only on the right side of the fabric. Everything's very close so go slowly and keep a close eye on it. It is a pain in the neck to rip out if you mess up, believe me.

Here is what it will look like when you're done sewing:



The back of the fabric after unfolding the hem:



The front:



Notice that all you see are the small ticks from where the needle caught this side of the fabric. It's noticeable here because I used a contrasting thread but if you use a matching thread it will be barely noticeable. At this point you would also press the hem flat. I definitely recommend practicing on the fabric you'll be using but it is surprisingly easy once you figure it out and makes everything look much more professional and finished. Good luck!