Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Original Jeans Hem : A Hulibug tutorial!

Hiya! I've been doing lots of jeans at work now that winter is here so thought I'd take some pics to show you how to shorten your jeans keeping the original hem. There are 3 different ways I know of doing this but today I will show you the"binding" method:
Start by measuring where you want your new hem to finish & mark with tailors chalk then cut off:

Trim away excess denim leaving a 1cm seam allowance above the stitching line:
Now unpick the stitching:
Then attach the hem to the jeans, right sides facing, matching both side seams perfectly. Sew around hem close to original stitching line:

Press the seam down. Now thread your machine with a close matching denim thread. Fold hem under covering raw edges inside the seam & edge stitch the whole way around. When sewing jeans we don't back-tack instead follow through the starting 6-7 stitches:

And the finished hem looks like this :

Tips: This works best on non-stretch, straight leg jeans so it will have the same measurement around the hem & where you will be re-attaching it! Use a heavey duty needle & denim thread for the best look! Any questions please ask away & I'll do my best to answer :)
And heres what I've started making from all the cutoffs from jeans that I hem normally, I guess working as a seamstress has it's perks for an avid refashioner like me:

Inspired by this tutorial but made alil differently ;) More pics over at  hulibug

2 comments:

Mandy said...

You did a great job. I am too scared to hem my jeans because that is the one clothing item I pay more for. Also I love what you have done with the scraps!

La La Lauren!!! said...

thanks for the tutorial! and I love the baskets at the end!

LaLaLauren, EOD