As much as I love a frill (and they don’t come much frillier than Celia!) sometimes I just want something a bit more simpler.

Just taking off the frill is a bit too simple though. Giving the hem a mitred corner gives a neat and clean finish to corners, and look great if they are top-stitched as well.

• Draw on the original hem line
• Add an extra 5cm on from the hem line
• Draw on the side seam allowance
• Add an extra 5cm onto the side from the seam line
• Mark the split to end about 8cm or 3” from the finished hemline

I wanted to sew the hem by top stitching 4cm away from the finished edge to give a border to the hem and split, I thought it would look quite neat to have the split sewn with a gable (or point) above it. So I drew on the top-stitching line and created a gable over the split so the point of the gable was 4cm above the end of the split. I could then trim off the excess paper to give me the shape I needed.

Follow this tutorial on How to Sew Mitred Corners. Then, once the corners are completed, give yourself some guidelines for the top-stitching.

The hem and splits once sewn need a really good press – use a pressing cloth and plenty of steam if you need to.

This is a very straightforward pattern hack to achieve and I hope it shows how easy it is to adapt a pretty simple pattern to include a few interesting details.

If you haven’t yet got your Celia Top pattern then you can purchase yours here.