Hemming Toddler Dresses

I've been sewing dresses for my daughter for several years now. I'd consider myself an intermediate seamstress, but I am self taught.   I get frustrated EVERY time I sew the hem. I've finally decided to ask and see if I'm doing something wrong or if it's just always going to be difficult for me!  I always feel like there's just too much fabric at the hem and it's bunching, or something. Which would make sense because most of what I sew is A-line. I always can figure it out and make it work, but it never seems quite right to me and it ruins the look of otherwise cute dresses. Any thoughts? Should I be doing a certain stitch? Or some technique I'm not aware of to fix the bunching? I'm not even sure bunching is the right word, but it just seems like a little too much fabric.  Hope this makes sense...thanks in advance for help!

The one thing for me that makes a big difference is how I press the hem.  It is important not to drag your iron along the hem, but actually press the hem.  Meaning put your iron down... press one piece, lift your iron and then press the next part instead of dragging your iron along the hem.  Does that makes sense?  Think press and not iron.  When you iron or drag your iron you end up stretching the material and then it bunches.  Good luck!

Oh, there's nothing like getting to the last step then being unhappy with the results. I am just a few months into garment sewing for my daughter and I feel your pain! I agree with dixiemango that pressing is key. My trick is to sew a row of basting stitches 1/2 or 5/8" from the raw edge which I then use as my pressing guide. Having the line of stitching in place takes the guesswork out of where I need to press. It might even serve as a "temporary staystitch," (if that makes any sense) to fend off warping and bunching while pressing. Next I tuck the raw edge under and edgestitch, which leaves me with a neat little hem that is even all the way around. Does that make sense?

The bigger the hem, the bigger the problem.  I use to like to make dresses like your talking about and put a big hem in so I could lower it when she grew.  I serged around the edge and then pulled the stitches a little to ease it in a bit.  You could probably do this with a row of basting (long stitch length setting on your machine).

This is an obnoxious but inevitable issue with a-line skirts.

For modest a-lines, I straighten the side in the hem area to avoid the whole issue. Or I will serge the bottom edge and hand-stitch the hem, as to ease the extra.

With extreme a-lines, mirror the angle at the hem line, so that the circumference at the stitching points will be the same.

Or you can use hem lace (http://www.simplicity.com/c-201-hem.aspx). Stitch one edge of the hem lace to the folded-up part of the hem and the other edge to the underside of the skirt. The lace takes up and hides the extra, while giving a cute little inner detail. Note that you’ll want to line a skirt intended for tights or nylons, as I find the lace wants to stick.