I love designer jeans, but I don’t love designer prices. So I buy my jeans at sample sales. But this also means they are usually too long. Well, I finally tore a hole in the last jeans I had, so it was time to finally hem some of the jeans I bought. I think I’ve had them for a year and hadn’t hem them. Necessity had me hemming them an hour before hopping on a plane to Vancouver so I would have something warm to wear up there.
In any case, I thought I’d go through the steps I took in case anyone else was interested in hemming their pants.
Supplies:
- Nice yellow thick cotton thread. Try to match the thread in the jeans already. Doesn’t have to be perfect though. You may notice that not all the thread on your jeans even matches.
- Denim needle. They’re stronger than regular needles and you’ll need that to go through three layers of denim at the hem.
Start by marking the line you want as the bottom and then mark another line an inch below that.
Cut on the bottom line.
Here are both legs cut.
First fold up 1/2 in. Pin in place. You could iron, but I was pressed for time and lazy.
After folding the first 1/2 inch, fold another 1/2 inch up so that you hide the raw edge. Pin in place. You probably want to iron here. But again, I was pressed for time and lazy.
Switch the pins to the outside now. You’ll want to sew from the outside. At least I do since my machine stitches look nicer on top that on bottom.
Stitch at the desired width, but obviously less than 1/2 inch or you won’t catch the folded under part. I used the edge of the presser foot. If I were to do it again, I would go much closer to 1/2 inch and make it wider.
Repeat for the second leg and you’re done!
