Hemming by Machine

One pair of the jeans I thrifted back in April were too long for me, which sadly isn't unusual. As a senior I've shrunk down to 5'3, and even before that I usually had to hem by hand whatever pants I bought. Jeans tend to be tough to hand sew because of the heaviness of the denim and the thick seams. Unfortunately my arthritis doesn't want me hand stitching denim, so I decided to try hemming this pair on my sewing machine.

The first step to how I hem is to mark where I want the bottom of the hem by cuffing and pinning like this.

I then mark the bottom of the hem with a pin and cut off the excess fabric an inch below it.

I use the cut-off piece of fabric as a template to do the same thing to the other leg (my right leg is a little shorter than my left, but not noticeably.)

I then double fold the end and pin it in a half-inch hem. This is where I usually start hand-sewing, but this time I used my sewing machine. I chose to use black thread because I didn't have a bobbin with navy, and I went slowly. I turned the needle by hand when I reached the seams to avoid breaking the needle, which can happen with denim.

It worked! Here are the finished jeans. Very happy I tried this. :)

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Valerean

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