How to Hem Jeans
Aurora Sisneros
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Aurora Sisneros presents new techniques for hemming your jeans. Learn helpful tricks to sewing through thick parts in the jeans and find out how beneficial it can be to have a friend available to speed up the process. Use these awesome tips when you are hemming your own jeans.
Related Article: Top 5 Tips for Hemming Pants
I'm a little bit on the shorter side. So a common problem for me is having to hem my pants. Now with jeans, it tends to be a problem, 'cause sometimes I have to cut this much off in order for them to be the right length, but I don't want to cut off this very trendy, very cool hem that's on my jean because then it looks like that, and there's not really any style to that at all. So I found a little sneaky way to hem jeans, and here's the trick. You have to have a friend help you with this because you have to be wearing the jeans and whatever shoes it is that you would like to wear them with.
And that friend has to help fold it up like this, but you also have to have enough room for the original hem to come back down. And then you want the original hem to be just off the floor or wherever it is that you would like. So once your friend puts a little pin in here, then you can fold this over. And this fold right here is the most important one. So we're gonna go ahead and grab that and get a pin in there like this, okay?
So now once you've taken them off, please don't hurt yourself removing the jeans with a pin in the hem. We're going to tuck this out like this, and you can use your measuring tool to make sure that you have the exact amount of slack all along here. Then you're going to take a pin, and you're going to just spin the cuff around. And you're going to get pins in the hemline just like this to hold it into place when we sew. All right, now we are going to sew this, and you can see that I have taken the piece off of my sewing machine so that I can take my jean cuff and just put it right over.
And I'm gonna start right near a side seam so we can deal with that first. Now I'm using my zipper foot, and my needle is awfully close to this piece right here where the cuff has been folded over. I want to sew as close to that as I can. So I'm gonna go ahead and start sewing. Now, the first thing I'm going to encounter is this really really puffy spot, where there is several layers of jeans.
Now, most home machines have a hard time getting through that. So I don't want to break my needle. I'm going to use my flywheel on the right hand side, and I'm gonna turn the top towards me. You don't want to go backwards, and I'm just gonna walk through there. Now you can see, my foot has completely gotten stuck because it's up against this wall.
So I'm just gonna cheat a little bit. I'm gonna lift my foot. I'm gonna slide the fabric under the foot, lower, and then get my needle in. And it's stuck again, so I'm gonna lift my foot and slide, and you're determining the stitch length here, so you can go as far as you need to. And lower the foot.
That's the part I always forget is lowering the foot. And now it looks like it's walking again on its own. Now, if it's a very thick pair of jeans, and the needle won't go through it all even with a little force from this, please don't break your needle. You can lift the foot and slide that whole piece past the needle and just leave a big, long thread past it. It's not a big deal.
That way you don't worry about breaking a needle. So here's a thick part again, and I'm just gonna be very patient and walk right through it. Oh, see right there. I'm meeting a little bit of resistance. See, I can't go in.
I don't want to break my needle, so I'm gonna back up just a little bit, and I'm going to move my fabric forward, and I'm just gonna skip that part. And then I'm going to keep going once I get past the hard part and move that pin. All right. And now we can keep going all the way around the edge. Do your back stitch when you meet the last thread.
Okay, we're gonna lift our needle and pull it out. So now we have sewn right along this edge here. So what we're gonna do is push that fold up into the pants like this. And if it's really long on the edges like this, see how we have a lot up inside of the leg? You can just use a little hand needle and hand tack it to the side.
You can obviously cut it if you would like. You can use your scissors and cut it off around the edge and do a little zigzag or run it through the surger, but I always give my jeans to Goodwill when I'm done with them. So if you want somebody else to be able to take apart that hem, you just fold this in and you tack it right there. And then you still have the original hem. Now you will notice that you see a little teeny line right there, but if somebody is getting that close to inspect the hem on your jeans to notice that then you should just kick them.
Two things. The thickness of the pressure foot, even moving the material through yourself, my pressure foot only goes up so high. Is there an extension on the machine somewhere? I have a singer machine. Not the one for heavy duty crafting. Also, are you using a specific needle for the thickness of the material? Do they have specific pressure feet for thick material sewing?
Love love what you doing. I’m learning so much. Oh thank you so much. Oh yea on the jeans why didn’t you use orange three?
Very creative hemming! And the last piece of advice.. lol! Kick ‘em! Love it!
If you take your Jean's on a hard surface a hammer them with a regular hammer on the seams they will go through your machine e with no problem
Love the advise to "Just Kick-em" if they are that close. LOL
<strong> Ticket 21579 How do i sew bell bottom stretch jeans?
You don’t have to have another person to pin them in the way she showed. Just cuff them up (fold so the extra fabric is on the outside of the leg) and then pin them yourself to the correct length. Take the jeans off and measure the height of the cuff. Now fold them the way she showed, using your measurement divided by two. So if you need the jeans to be two inches shorter, the cuff would be one inch when measured from the edge of the hem (the place where you will sew) to the fold. Basically you are first measuring the total amount to be hemmed, then divide that by two and cuff it the same way she did but use the number you calculated to be the amount in the folded area that is the flap that you fold up (or cut off if you prefer). The measurement is explained well in this video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4d4CCD_8ebw Also, use thread that matches you jeans color, not white thread unless your jeans are white.
Responding to Sydney, She is showing the correct way to hem this when measured correctly it works, my customers would tell you so. And yes this is best done on a straight leg but with a little manipulation it can usually work on a flare leg.
Thank you for the technique. But, there is such a thing as a "hump jumper". I use one all of the time to hem jeans. It fools your machine into thinking its sewing over a level surface.
This only seems to work on straight leg jeans if they flare the old hem is wider than what you're sewing it to. Use a hump jumper or a thick piece of cardboard under the back of the foot to get past the hump. Use a safety pin to mark the hem so you don't get poked taking them off.