Monday, June 7, 2010

Hemming Blue Jeans

Ever since I saw Gail's great tutorial on hemming bluejeans, I've been anxious to try it out. It looked like the greatest idea ever. Unfortunately(?) all the jeans I've bought for the past year have been petites, so I didn't have any jeans to hem. I was very happy when I recently bought a pair of jeans that need hemming. So I turned to Linda's tutorial.

Go to her blog for the complete instructions (link in first paragraph), but just shortly here, I ironed up the hem as it should be, and trimmed off 1" below the fold line.
I made four little snips along side the side seams, then pinned up the hem. I left the little tabs sticking up, and sewed right over the side seams.
By using Linda's method, I didn't have to sew over three layers of side seams on the jeans. I only sewed over two layers, because those tabs were sticking out. Who needs 'em!?

I do own a spool of that special blue jeans hemming thread (which is orange/gold--the perfect color--and a little heavier than normal thread). But of course, I didn't have it with me when I was hemming these, so I used a very dark, dark blue.
After sewing the hem up, I trimmed off those little tabs. Just threw them away. Said adios! This hemming method is niftier than sliced bread--really!!!

The finished blue jean hems look great. I'm thinking, however, that at some point I might sew over the seams again with my orange thread, because it makes the finished jeans look so nice...

Linda, thanks so much for showing me how to do this.

7 comments:

  1. Yes! And it works so well. Let me know if you need a pair of jeans (or pants) shortened--I'd be glad to do it for you.

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  2. Just catching up this evening on some "blog surfing". Your post of June 7th gives me credit for the hemming jeans tutorial, when actually it is my friend Gail M's idea. Just thought you might want to give her the proper credit. It is slick, isn't it? I use it too!

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  3. I am so sorry about that Gail! How could I have made such a mistake?!? I will amend the blog entry (if I can figure out how to do that). So sorry.

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  4. oh, no problem. I hope everyone uses this technique. Avoiding those three heavy layers of fabric is the key. Be sure to use yellow or jeans thread in the bobbin for an authentic jeans hem look.

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  6. Gail, this method works so well! I want to buy some too-long jeans just so I can do it again. Thanks for sharing it with all of us.

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