Welcome back to Fun Friday! I’ve been wanting to share this tip of how to hem jeans and keep the original hem for months now. Months! My sewing machine had some issues and I couldn’t figure out how to fix it so my good post idea sat tucked away in my brain. Every single time I would put on a pair of jeans I would think to myself, “I need to tell my readers about this life-changing way to hem jeans!” Finally, my mom came to my house and fixed my sewing machine (she changed a bent needle…bahaha) and now I can show you this very helpful tutorial on how to hem jeans. For someone like me who is TOTALLY inept at most things sewing (as evidenced by my “broken sewing machine”) I know YOU CAN DO THIS too. I know you can. I’ve used this technique many many times. I am 5 foot 3 1/2 inches and if there isn’t a “short” option when I buy a pair of jeans I usually will need to hem them (or have them drag on the floor). Short people unite!
Important: When you are pinning the jeans make sure to carefully line up the stitching/seams on the sides of the jeans. You can see in the picture below that I pinned the jeans exactly lined up with the gold stitching.
Step 2: Sew!
This is going to feel weird. But trust me! You will place your needle next to the original hem. You will sew RIGHT NEXT to the original hem. Stitch on the RIGHT side of the hem (the farthest from the bottom of the jean). Sew all the way around the cuff. Repeat on the other leg of the jean. If you have trouble sewing over the seam with your machine try using a thicker needle. I choose to use my hand and turn the wheel on the side of the machine manually when I go over the thick seams on the sides of the jeans.
You can see the arrow pointing to the 1 1/8 inches that we hemmed.
Step 4: Press the jeans flat so they aren’t bulky or if you have hemmed a ton (like 5 inches or something) you can just cut off the excess portion. They may fray when washed if you do cut them off. That’s why I just iron them really well on the bottom.
P.S. Make sure to pin this tutorial on Pinterest so that you can save it for later!
You can cut the excess off and zigzag the raw edge before you press to stop fraying. If you have a serger, even better.
Great instructions! Just hemmed some boot cut Jean’s using your method. Perfect!
With today’s skinny/ tapered jeans, if you use this method Ann’s need to take 2+ inches off the hem, you will have buckling because the hem width and leg width are different. Take them in to a professional to have them hemmed and tapered. Most people I have seen wanting the original hem used are high end jeans bought at really cheap prices they may want to resell later. If they cut 5″ off the hem, then they can’t resell them. Play it safe. If you can’t hem them properly take them in to someone who can.
This is brilliant. I hope this tutorial will help me a lot to hem my jeans at home. Thanks a lot for this amazing tutorial. God bless you.
She did tell you to cut the amount in half at the very beginning.
Hope this isn’t followed!!! They will be too SHORT. You have to divide measurement in half and measure from original hem stitching
A trick for sewing over those thick seams on jeans is once you have it pinned lay seam on a hard surface such as tile or concrete floor and hit the seam with a hammer once or twice. This will flatten the seam and make it easier to sew over.
To keep the fabric from fraying, you can use a product for fraying, such as fray check. I have hemmed 4 pairs of jeans and this method is perfect. I always stitch with a long stitch to make sure it is the right measurement, in case I need to rip out and start over.
good to know!
How do I hem a pr of jeans where the leg of the jean is slightly larger than the hem
Good question! I don’t know the answer to that 🙁
You will have to make the side seam a little larger. Start sewing up about the hip area and sew like an upside down dart….gradually getting a little larger as you go down the leg until the leg is the same width as the hem.
i have looked and looked at the pictures and came to the conclusion that the jeans are going to be 2 1/4″ too short! Am I right or wrong?
this is how I do it and it works out for me!
I measured an old pair of jeans that I liked the length of and used that measurement. Put the pins in and tried them on before sewing to make sure they were at a length I wanted. Nobody is the same height so I’m not sure why you did use someone else’s measurements.
Not if you use your own measurements. Remember to divide it in half, as she says in step one too.
i ruined a pair of expensive jeans. I did not take the amt i needed shortened and divide in half (because the directions did not say to ) and without checking cut them off. A very sad moment. $185 down the drain
Make capris!!
awesome idea!
i just did the same thing on two pairs of someone elses pants. YIKES!!!!
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She said to divide your measurement in half
She very clearly does say to divide it in half. She even put HALF in all caps.
Step 1: Figure out how much you need to hem
Try on the pair of jeans and roll the cuff up to how much you want off the bottom. Then carefully take off the jeans–keeping the cuff. Measure how much you cuffed. These jeans needed 2 1/4 inches hemmed. Now cut that number in HALF. Pin the jeans carefully measuring at each point you pin. (I pinned every 2 inches and measured exactly 1 1/8″ at each pin).
My friend showed me this method and I do it a lot now. But after you measure how much you want to take off, you need to divide it in half because this method is removing two layers, so twice as much fabric.
Also just measure from the fold to the orange stitching at bottom, because the extra half inch or so on the jean bottom will still be there.
Love your recipes – my crockpots are working hard in my kitchen thanks to you!
You are absolutely correct! Must be halved or they’ll be TOO SHORT!
Thank you Heidi, this finally makes sense!!
Thank you Heidi,
It makes sense to me now. I was cutting off good, original hems and was wondering how I could make it look original. Ha Ha..
I’ve worried about that extra half inch……thanks.
Thank you for that explanation.
Amazing!!! I will have to share this with my mom!!! Thanks for sharing!!!
I'm so excited to try this on several pants that are worn out and I want to turn into shorts for both me and my kids. They're wider-legged pants so I'm hoping it works.
What a great tip! I have 2 pairs of jeans I have put off hemming because I always have problems with them. You make it simple. Thanks so much!