A machine hem is a straight line applied to a curve. It works, and on most garments nobody looks twice. But an abaya hem is not straight — it sweeps, and the fabric on the outside of that sweep has further to travel than the fabric on the inside.
Finished by hand, the surplus is eased in a few millimetres at a time, so the hem hangs without ripple and the garment keeps its weight at the floor. It takes a seamstress roughly four hours. It is the single clearest difference between a piece that reads expensive and a piece that is.
