It started because my man is tired of his socks showing when he bends his legs, kind of like this.
Like this.
He's a tall guy, and hard to fit. Some jeans were so long he walked on them, and the next size down showed his sockies. (Yes, I just said sockies.) I remembered seeing a post about hemming jeans so the original distressed hem was still there a few weeks ago. So while out jeans shopping, and brave girl that I am, I told him "Get the long ones, and I'll hem them!" Boy am I brave, and he sure is a trusting guy!
I used this pin and this pin from pinterest to figure this out. They are both the same technique, just explained a little differently. After looking at a pair of jeans, I figured it out pretty quickly.
My camera cord is MIA. It's still in a random box somewhere I'm sure. As soon as I get a new one, I promise to post pics. The first two blogs explain this REALLY well so feel free to check them out!
To start, I practiced on Zmans jeans first. I thought an 8 year old won't notice if I screw up his jeans, so I started there. He rips the hems off anyway.
I eye balled the first fold. I thought for sure they would need to be at least {{this much shorter}} and made my first fold.
Then I stitched the fold flat, sewing just barely outside the original distressed hem. You don't want to sew on that hem, because you could one, break your needle, and two, that's where we need to fold our pants back down in a minute.
Okay, after you sew the first fold into place, you just fold your pants back down on the line you just stitched. Iron it flat and THAT'S IT. Seriously. If you want it to be a bit more sturdy, you can tack your new hem in place in a couple of places. For the two boys, i went ahead and stitched another line on the top of the inside hem, but that left a line of stitching that shows. I did not do this for the man's, or for mine, because I don't want people to see that I've hemmed them.
For the man's, he wanted it specifically one inch shorter. I talked him into an inch and a half. Using my handy dandy sewing gauge I maneuvered the hem to be 3/4 inches (that's 6 tiny little marks on the sewing gauge). I pinned the hem down as I measured along, and then so slowly and carefully sewed it down. You know why so carefully and slowly? Because I knew that my man would be looking at that dumb hem to see how straight it was compared to the original distressed hem. But that's another story.
I folded it back over, ironed it along my new line of stitching, and viola! The man was super impressed. And then I told him the story of how I got a C in home-ec because I couldn't make a pillow. Then he looked at me crooked....good thing I didn't tell him first!
Seriously people, you will feel like a domestic goddess. In the end, I hemmed 11 pair of pants. Pinterest made me brave enough to tell my hubs I could do it, and then of course I had to follow through. Thanks to justsomethingmade.com and makeit-loveit.com for the great tutorials! Pinterest made me do it again y'all!
