How to Hem Pants

I am 5 foot 1, with hips, and a nice little booty.  Although I am happy about all of these traits, buying jeans that fit is near impossible.  I can think of about 3 pairs of jeans in my life that haven't had to be hemmed.  Crop pants and capris?  Yeah right, they never look good.  They never hit the right spot, since I'm short and curvy, and pretty much always make me look like a gnome.  Not attractive.

Jean shopping is one of my least favorite things.  I absolutely hate it and would definitely never let anyone else experience the madness along with me.  A few months back, Mike actually had to force me to go to the mall jean shopping.  "Go buy jeans!"  UGH.  If a guy has to tell a girl (much less their WIFE) to go shopping, something is wrong.  I love shopping, just not for jeans.

It makes total sense that the bigger your waist, the taller you are, right?  NOT ALWAYS!  It's not a perfect equation and fashion somehow has not figured that out yet.  And what's with the trend of having all sizes with the same inseam?  How the hell does that make sense?  ...See my frustration?!

So, for all of my life, my mom has been hemming my jeans.  Which means that even when I purchased new pants, I couldn't even wear them until we went to visit my parents and my mom could sew them.  It usually resulted in me being snippy and unhappy with her.  She's tried many different methods and it usually doesn't look that great.  But I can't be picky, right?  She does it for free and it generally works. I have a few pair that are definitely too short, but I wear them anyway.  And a few that are too long.  But hey, it's better than having a few inches dragging on the floor.

A little over a year ago, my mom snagged a sewing machine from someone in my hometown for 10$. She gave it to me and proclaimed that I would have to learn to hem my own pants.  Umm...thanks?

A few nights ago, Mike and I stopped at the mall quickly, and I surprisingly walked out with 2 pairs of jeans for 50$.  This included my first American Eagle purchase EVER.  Big girl!  Now...the daunting task of doing my own hemming.  To my surprise, a cheat sheet from the internet was in the sewing machine box, SCORE!  So I used that.

It took me about an hour, and a few needle pokes (one bloody one), less than 5 swear words, and voila!  Hemmed pants a-la ME!

The beginning

Here's how to do it:

1.  Cuff up your pants to the length you want.  Mine was about 4.5 cm I wanted "off".  Divide that in HALF.  For me:  2.25 cm

2.  Measure your halved distance from the current hem upward.  Do not include the actual hem in the measurement, measure from the edge of the current hem.

3.  Pin all the way around, make sure that your seams match up and continually measure your cuff. 

4.  Then fire up your machine!  Sew right along the edge of the current hem (the point from where you started measuring).  You can also do this by hand if you do not have a machine.  Try your best to keep it straight.  Also make sure to keep your opening apart, so you don't sew your jeans shut!

5.  Fold the new cuff up into the pant leg, and your original hem will still be your current hem.  Iron it flat to give you a nice flat cuff.  

6.  From there, you can choose to cut off the excess which is now hidden inside.  I chose to hoopstitch the cuff inside so I didn't have to cut anything.  That looks like this:

7.  And you're done!!  Mine are still a wee-bit long, but I have learned to keep them longer rather than shorter, because after a few washings and such, they will shrink up.

The end product!

My mom would be so proud!  Please let me know if you have questions or tips.  I have one more pair to go :)