Denim shortening at home anyone?

ramya

With my changing body I bought a much needed denim . Though it fits me great, it's too long. I donot have access to tailor here nor a sewing machine. Any tips on shortening them?

Ps it's too long to sport the rolled look

8 years ago

General

9 replies

Latest reply was from jln

Thistle

Veteran

I think denim would be very difficult to hem without a machine. I have blind hemmed dress pants by hand, but the fabric was soft and forgiving.

8 years ago

Diana

Veteran

I've done it. It's not as hard as it looks. Easier on dark or black denim without bright stitching though, as you can use matching thread and it won't show. I've only done it myself when it's a short enough hem that I don't have to cut the fabric (just fold it up) as I don't know how to finish the raw edges by hand.

8 years ago

Diana

Veteran

Here, I took a pic of a pair I did myself by hand. What I did was fold it up 2 inches inside, tacked it down at the top with some black thread, then I did a second back stitch seam at the place where a normal seam would be, in the same gold color as the original seam. You can see my stitches are not too even but when it's on my body nobody is getting close enough to my hem to see. #1 is outside, #2 is inside.

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8 years ago

Anonymous

If the denim isn't super heavy weight, and you are ok without saving the topstitched hem, there is always StitchWitchery(iron on hemming tape).

8 years ago

cloud9

Veteran

If you are daring, you can cut off the excess, then use fabric tape and iron the fold. You won't have a stitch though. And not sure how this would work with denim raw edge. Disclaimer: I have NOT done this to my jeans. I've done so with a dress pant. For jeans I usually hem with a sewing machine.

8 years ago

Gaylene

Veteran

Not hard at all. Here's a website, with pics, that shows how I hemmed a pair of jeans while on holiday. I bought a pair of too-long jeans one day that I wanted to wear that same evening.
http://lwvogue.com/tutorial-hem-jeans-by-hand/

I had a sewing needle in my makeup bag that I keep for emergency repairs while on the road, but no thread so I used dental floss instead. Worked like a charm and that emergency hem stayed for a couple of years because I was too lazy to do a proper fix when I got home. You don't even need to be talented sewer as long as you keep your stitch line right beside the hem fold.

8 years ago

Firecracker (Sharan)

Veteran

Gaylene's method is the one I use, even with a machine. It works nicely and preserves the original hem stitching.

8 years ago

Greyscale

Veteran

I never thought of doing it by hand! What a great idea. I used to do it with my machine, but fitting the jeans over the arm of the sewing machine is a pain, and it always felt impossible to keep everything lined up properly even with pins. Hand-sewing would give me a lot more control. And Gaylene's method of using the original hem is brilliant (I know my tailor does that, but I never thought to do it by hand). I usually have to fold up so much fabric that it would be too bulky to leave in place as in that method, but I could easily hem it then cut off the extra fabric.

8 years ago

jln

Active Member

I hem my jeans like the video link. A couple tips:
-if I hemmed more than an inch or so, I cut it off. Otherwise the bulk of the fabric rubs against my foot or shoe and sometimes my pant leg "cuffs" itself which shows the underside and looks ridiculous.
- if I cut the fabric, I use pinking shears. Otherwise I get loose threads that hang down and drag the ground...a look I'm a few years too old for;)
Happy Hemming!

8 years ago

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