Corners get a bad rap. You get backed into them, things go wrong when you cut them, and when you're bad, you have to stand in them. In sewing, when two exterior raw edges come together at 90˚, you're faced with hemming around a corner. If you've always been fearful about what lurks around a hemmed corner, this is the tutorial for you. Today, we'll show you the easiest ways to sew a corner hem. You'll learn how to fold and sew the fabric at the corner of a hem so there is a diagonal seam from the point of the corner to inside the edge of the hem. The diagonal seam is the point of the miter, which is why this type of hem finish is sometimes referred to as a mitered hem. 

Everyone loved last week's tutorial about how to make wave tucks! And, we promised to show you how we put them into action here in the S4H studios. Have we ever backed out on a promise? (You can't count that time I ate the last slice of pie; I only said I'd try to leave you a piece!) Today, our very cute, very preppy handbag is not only a gorgeous use of contrasting wave tucks, it's a hands-on lesson in how smack-dab-dead-on the Michael Miller Cotton Couture colors (all 90 of them!) match all the prints within the MMF Color Stories.

Before you start to panic, this technique does not require a bathing suit or a surfboard; all you need is your sewing machine... and a desire for style! We’ve shown you numerous ways to take fabric from flat to fancy: pleating, gathering, shirring, and pintucks to name just a few (see the full list at the end of this article). Although these are all traditional techniques, we work hard to give them a new twist by using exciting fabrics or finding new applications. And, just when you think you’ve seen it all, some ingenious soul develops a fresh approach to fabric manipulation. Today, we’re discussing a fairly new technique: wave tucks. These are not to be confused with wave pleats, which are a form of pleated draperies. The wave tuck starts as a modified pintuck, but quickly transforms into beautiful winding folds with just a few passes through your sewing machine. We use them next week, during our Michael Miller Cotton Couture series, to embellish a preppy handbag (the Fuschia and Tangerine tucks in the photo above are a little sneak peek).