Hemstitching by machine

[satsumasalad.livejournal.com]

Hi, a quick question, I hope this isn't off topic, but the members here are bound to be the ones who know

I was casually browsing eBay today looking at hemstitched tablecloths, pillowcases and the like, and came across this item - a hemstitching fork for a sewing machine

Now I confess I have not used my sewing machine in many a long year but I'm pretty sure I have one of these in my box of attachments. If I could make my own hemstitched blanks for tatting onto, well....well words fail me.

Has anyone done this, is it straightforward, is it - how can I say - good enough?

Thanks for any replies

Comments

Hemstitching fork

[teikasmom.livejournal.com]

I sew and tat and I've never seen one of these before. Do you have directions for the one you think you have? If so, try it on scrap material.

Re: Hemstitching fork

[satsumasalad.livejournal.com]

Thanks - my sewing machine and attachments are in store, so getting to them isn't straightforward. I was just wondering if people here knew anything before I made the trip to try it out.

The eBay item has some instructions but they don't tell me how the holes are made/drawn.

[chamois-shimi.livejournal.com]

From the instructions, I'm not sure it's doing what you want it to - it sounds like the fork is hemstitching between two pieces of fabric, not leaving open stitching holes along the edge of one piece of fabric:
1. Sew two pieces of fabric right sides together to create this open work often called fagotting.
2. Place the Hemstitch Fork between the two layers of fabric with the straight ends at the beginning of the seam.

I /think/ how it would work is that with the right sides together, the fork will allow a hemstitch to work with one side "open", but then when you take your garment or whatever and un"fold" it so you see both right sides, then there's a stripe of openwork between their edges. At a guess, anyway, maybe it actually does work the more useful way, for edging.

fagotting images:
http://www.dolliesdressmaker.com/imgs_pub/stitches5.jpg
http://vintagesewing.info/1930s/36-hsc/images/06_hand.jpg