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Saturday, October 29, 2011

Hemming Jeans

I'm an average height, pear shaped gal.  I dreaded the day skinny jeans came back in style.  I miss straight-leg jeans.  Please, please come back.

Pants are always a challenge and jeans are a nightmare with their unflattering thighs and baggy waists.  I'm a thrifty gal, but I'll pay anything for a decent-fitting pair of jeans.

Did you read that?  ANYTHING.

So I was pretty excited when I found a like new pair of jeans at a local consignment shop for $20. 

They would be perfect...if I was 5'9".


I bought them anyway, ran them through the wash and blasted them in a hot dryer.


Still too long and sloppy, even for my high-heeled boots.

I remembered seeing a tutorial on how to hem jeans and keep the original factory hem.

And it worked.  It was so easy!

First, determine how much you need to raise the hem.  For this pair of jeans, it was 1 1/2 inches.

Divide that number in half, which is 3/4 inch.  This is the number you will use in the next step.

Cuff the jeans, measuring from the original hem, and pin around the leg opening.  A sewing scale speeds things along with this step.


Using a denim needle and a zipper foot, stitch as close as possible to the original hem without sewing on top of it!  If you machine has a left-right needle adjustment, use it to get really close to the hem.


Finger-press the seam, then try on the jeans before starting the other leg, just in case you need to make any adjustments.

Repeat on the other side, try on the jeans one more time to make sure they are the correct length, then press the seams with an iron.  In order to avoid shiny denim, iron from the inside of the pant leg and avoid directly ironing the top crease of the cuff.


Admire your favorite shoes since you can see them again.


You can fire your tailor now.



I'm linking up...


8 comments:

  1. 5' here, and yup, that's how I hem mine. This way I can also easily let them down if I decide I want to wear them with heels, instead of flats.
    I am a Jeans Ho, after working a few years at The Gap. I get my fix at Thrift stores and Sal. Army. I never pay more than $10 for Gap jeans!

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  2. I have the opposite problem, but my future DIL is tiny, so I will pass this trick on to her!

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  3. What a wonderful trick for this short lady...now pinning this...thanks a million or at least the price of a trip to the tailors!

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  4. I am also short....28" inseam.....I took a pair to have them shortened and she did it this way but I couldn't figure out how she did it....thanks for showing me how to do this......no more $12.50 to have a pair of jeans hemmed.....just have to get a sewing machine. Thanks for sharing. Have a great day.

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  5. I've always wondered how this was done. I figured it was a much more difficult process so I never bothered! Now I know! Thanks so much for sharing :D

    Shelley
    www.westermanfam.blogspot.com

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  6. I KNEW there was a way. Thanks. I always have to shorten jeans.

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  7. I often need to take up hems but have never done it this way- what a brilliant idea! Your newest follower, Karima
    www.karimascrafts.com

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  8. Thank you! I checked out a few tutorials and this was the best one. Great pictures and simple instructions. Yay, no cutting.

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