Sewing a Hem

Hemming is one of the most useful everyday skills known by sewers. It is also one of the first skills taught when teaching sewing for beginners. Sewing a hem can be useful for adjusting the length of pants, draperies, or even a tablecloth.

Sewing a hem can be very easy, depending on the desired look and outcome. Hemming jeans is simple if you don't mind loosing the original hem. Measure the desired length that needs to be hemmed from the bottom of the jeans for them to fit better. Fold this length up into the inside of the jeans. Iron the fold so that the bottom edge of the pant leg is nice and crisp. You may want to pin the fold into place. Use a sewing machine or sew by hand around the bottom of the pant leg from the inside of the pants. Don't forget to remove the pins as you go along. If you are using a sewing machine, make sure to go slowly over the seam, as this is a thick area that could cause the sewing machine's needle to break. Once you come back around to the beginning of the stitching, sew forwards and backwards a few times. This will help prevent the stitching from unraveling.

Sewing a hem is made more complicated when the original hem and look of the pants is desired. Instead of merely folding up and sewing the bottoms of the jeans, cut off the bottom of the pants and reattach them once the new bottom has been hemmed. Obviously, using thread that is similar in color to the item being hemmed makes this modification even harder to detect.