Hemming Distressed Jeans

Being the short gal that I am, sometimes it’s hard to find a great pair of jeans that fit well in the length. A couple of years ago I found some awesome deals on Lucky jeans at Buckle in the mall, and they offered free alterations. I wanted to take the jeans on my trip to visit a friend in Atlanta the next day and there wasn’t time to leave the jeans at the store to be sewn. So the salesperson showed me the basic concept of how their sewing service altered the jeans leaving the cool original distressed hem at the bottom.Yesterday I needed to shorten a pair, so I took a few photos. It’s crazy simple. The only trick is measuring correctly.

Tuck a straight pin along the desired hem length. This is the line that you will stitch along. With pants right side out, fold up the existing hem to just above that pinned line. Stitch just above the current hem’s fold. Iron the fold to keep the fabric in position as you sew around each pantleg. Once sewn, fold the bulk up into the pantleg and press with an iron.Turn pants inside out and stitch either by hand or machine the fold under sections to the side seams to keep them from dropping down.I find that that extra thickness at the bottom of my jeans actually holds a nice open flare to them.Didn’t I tell you it was going to be easy?