I am making a kirtle/cotehardie in a hurry, based off of this page.

Since the original plan was for a T-tunic, I’m a little short on length in my original fabric. I decided to make a virtue out of necessity and hem the thing with a deep (~9″) guard of a brighter cut of the same fabric.

Right now, what I have is a dress (sleeveless, working on that too) with 10 different hemlines, up to 6″ different in length (I had some math errors, I think, or some measuring errors).

Since the hem is going to be an encased hem, I can’t just sew a strip to the dress and then hem it at the bottom.

So: What’s the easiest way to get a level hem while attaching a deep guard to the bottom of my dress?

Additionally, aesthetically – should I add a strip of the brighter material to the end of the sleeve (which will be belled), inserted just above the elbow as a band, or both?

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