Learn how to hem a pair of jeans by retaining the original hemline. If you don’t know how to sew by machine, I will teach you how to do it by hand sewing too!
Have you found yourself in a situation where you have found the right-fitting jeans along the waist and hip area but they seem to be a little longer than your required length?
Have you tried to reduce the length by cutting off the extra and then struggled to hem the jeans? Maybe you have ended up with an unprofessional and dirty hemline. Well, here is the perfect solution to shorten your jeans.
You don’t have to do extensive sewing to hem your jeans. Just a single fold and a few straight-line stitches would do the trick. So read on and learn how to shorten your jeans the easy way!
If you would like to learn how to tie a perfect bow for a dress, click on the picture below:
How to Hem Jeans by Machine
****Skip to the end of the page for the video tutorial****
Decide the length by which you need to shorten your jeans.
Measure the length you need to shorten from the original hem of the jeans and draw a straight line. Put pins, catching the layer underneath to mark the same measurement along the back. Following the marked pin, continue drawing the line all around.
Next, measure the width of your original hem.
Draw another line above the previous one, at a distance equal to the width of your original hem. Continue drawing the line, all around.
Put a pin just above the original hem.
Fold the hem up, lining up the pin with the line at the top.
Take care to line up the side seam of the fold to the original side seam of the jeans.
Sew above the original hemline, all around. Keep it as close to the hem as possible.
Flip the fold to the inside of the jeans and flip the hemline to the right side.
Sew on top of the original side seam to secure the fold underneath and prevent it from falling off while you wear it. Note that you can use the ‘stitch in the ditch’ method and sew right inside the earlier seamline to make the stitches invisible.
Now, you have learned how to hem the jeans, repeat on the other jeans leg to finish.
How to Hem Jeans by Hand
Like the previous method, decide how long you need to shorten your jeans. Measure the length you need to shorten from the original hem of the jeans and draw a straight line, all around. Fold the hem as you did earlier.
Thread your needle ( I have used a contrasting thread for illustration purposes).
Bring the needle up from the wrong side of the jeans.
Sew a line of backstitches all around, just below the hem as marked above. (Click here to see how you sew the back stitches).
This is how it would look on the inside.
Flip the fold to the inside of the jeans and flip the hem over to the right side. This is how the jeans would look like with the new hemline.
Next, we need to secure and hold the fold inside.
Thread your needle and bring it up from the wrong side.
Sew a line of chain stitches on the right side of the jeans, just above the fold line beneath. Make sure to catch the fold underneath as you sew.
Sew the chain stitches all around the jeans leg.
To release the last chain, thread your needle back through it and lift it up.
Lift up each chain one by one all around.
The chain stitches are released on top while keeping the stitches underneath intact.
Pull the thread to flatten and tighten the chain stitches. And lo you have only tiny invisible stitches on the outside.
This is how it will look like on the inside.
Trim off the hanging threads and you have shortened the jeans leg. Repeat on the other leg to finish.
Have a look at the video tutorial below:
Find the webstory for the post here, Hem Your Jeans: Machine and Hand
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