How I Hemmed My Jeans

After Caleb was born I bought some transition jeans and did this hack job when I hemmed them. This time around I thought I'd better try to do it right since my new jeans are from Banana Republic and cost $89.50. Seriously? Yes. And I'm so worth it. Well, not really. I got them on clearance for $17.99. Fantastic, huh? At first, I just folded them under and sewed a single seam. It took about 2 minutes and it looked horrible. They went from looking like $90 jeans to looking like they were $17.99 jeans. So, I ripped it out and I'm very happy with the results, so I thought I'd share.

First turn the jeans inside out. Fold up the bottom and iron. To calculate how much to fold up to this: (where x is the length you want to shorten by)

(x/2) + 0.5" = amount to fold up

I needed to shorten these jeans by 2". So, 2/2 = 1" + 0.5" = 1.5"

You can see above that I measured 1.5".

Iron.

Here's what it looks like ironed.

Turn the jeans right side out.

Now listen up because this is where I deviated from the jeans hemming tutorials I found online. You don't want to sew right up against the edge of the hem.

Notice I am NOT using a zipper foot. I'm using the standard foot for thick fabric. That's a B foot for Vikings. I scooted the needle as far to the left as I could.

You want the stitches to be 0.75" away from the edge of the jeans (not the fold).

Make sure that you sew through both side seams (there is a picture at the end demonstrating one leg having this done and the other not). It's probably a good idea to turn the needle with the knob instead of using your presser foot. It's a lot of denim to sew through!

Here's what it looks like finished.

Turn the jeans inside out again.

Now pull the leg piece over the ORIGINAL seam stitches.

And iron.

Should look like this when you're done.

Turn the jeans right side out again.

Using similar color thread as the original, stitch a new seam as close as possible to the fold edge.

Here's the problem. My New Year's resolution is to not sew through 10 layers of denim anymore. So, I did not sew over the inside side seam.

I did sew through the outside side seam, but I turned it by hand instead of using the foot pedal.

Go over the stitches a second time. Trust me. It'll look better.

Here's a look of the inside.

The finished hem.

The inside seams. Notice that the one on the left looks better. That is because I sewed through the inside side seam on the first round of stitches (the first fold). I didn't do that with the right side.

Here is a look of the first side completed.

And both completed.

And me wearing them.

Taadaa!