Since I had Maxwell, I have been on a new -to- me fitness journey.
(Read about that here if you are interested in forms of self-sabotage that I have indulged in)
Anyway I am working hard and am losing at least a pound or two every couple of weeks. (or 6 or 7 or 8 weeks) 🙂
This means that I refuse to buy new jeans or new pants; because it wouldn’t make sense right now. What I have been doing is happily buying gently used jeans from consignment/thrift stores. It takes awhile to find any that I like, and when or if I do, they are ALWAYS 3-7 inches too long. I live in the shorter side of life…where you will find the rest of the cool people. Definitely joking.
So I find jeans that I like, and I hem them myself.
—-I am what you would consider an admitted lazy, non-conventional seamstress.
So, if that doesn’t bother you–keep reading.
Here is quick summary of how-to easily
hem your pants:
(Highly likely my way is not the by the book way)
*Total time from start to finish: About an hour
*Tools needed: (5) Some kind of sewing machine, a white crayon, scissors, pins, & a ruler.
1. Try on your jeans figure out how long you want them to be.
Put one shoe on your left foot, and a different shoe on your right foot.
I chose two that differed a little bit in height.
I knew that I would only be wearing these particular jeans with tennis shoes or Sperry’s.
Cuff (not cut) cuff them right where you like them.
(Where you want them to be when you are completely done)
2. Iron the cuffs.
After you cuff them, take them off and iron them at the creases/folds of your cuff.
Make sure your iron is on a high setting. Iron both sides of each leg.
These creases are very important.
(Side note: For darker pants or black slacks I would use a spray bottle (steam) or starch)
3. Grab the ruler, the white crayon, and scissors.
Unfold your cuff.
Make sure that you can see a distinct line on both legs of your pants:
4.Mark your cutting line.
Align the left side of your ruler with your fresh crease.
Use your white crayon to mark the right side of the ruler.
Like this:
Here you can see the crease from where I ironed, and the white line from the crayon.
Do this to both pant legs:
5. Cut your jeans.
Cut right down the white line (not the creases that you ironed) that you made.
6. Time to pin.
Fold up and under using the ironed crease as your reference point.
I pinned about every inch and a half or so all the way around each side on both pant legs.
Your fold will be right at the crease and pinned, not going higher than your crease.
(remember, that crease is the length that you chose originally, so don’t fold past that point, fold right up, right at the crease and pin)
7. Sew.
I like to use the width of the guide plate to determine where I will start stitching. This way, it is simple, no extra work, and it is simple to gauge where to start on both pant legs.
8. Try them on and hope you didn’t completely mess them up.
(That’s what I usually do)
