The Monday Maker-Hemming Jeans

 

While the new fabric for my Winter to Spring 2023 makes has been washed, dried, hung (for now) and sorted, I have some mending to deal with.

Whether a "Mending Monday" stitcher or a more advanced garment maker, little tips here and there are surely a welcome. I must hem all my jeans and corduroy pants. Since I choose not to labor making them myself, it is a task that I have dreaded. I even have a pair of jeans that have been pinned up and ready for stitching since last May.

First I buy my normal size but they are always too long these days. I wash them and dry them in the machine to shrink them before I hem. Using a larger needle, a jeans needle, a sturdy thread, and the straight stitch on my machine with the needle in the far left position. If your machine does not adjust needle placement, a zipper foot will work nicely.

*In this process you are using the existing hem as stitched at the factory as your final hem. You will not be cutting off fabric, turning the hem up and stitching. The final product will look just, well almost, like the original. 

Since the length adjustment will be made from the right side of the item, the turn up is exactly 1/2 the width of the shortening. If your machine has the free arm adjustment, it works very well for this process. Pin the leg as described.

Your needle will ride right on the edge of the tunnel created by the original hem fold.

Stitch slowly, do not start on a seam. When approaching that big thick seam slow is the word.

As you can see in this photo, that stitching is essentially invisible. The thread I chose was a near perfect match to the fabric in these jeans.

After turning the stitched hem down, a good pressing, and return to the machine, I stitched on the front side in the ditch created by the turning. Since my take-up was only a 2 inch total, that meant only 1 inch was folded underneath the hem. Then I stitch the bulk down to secure it.  

If the fold up bulk is larger than one inch, I might have cut that off and serged the cut edge to finish it. For these I did not. Now, that second stitching is visible, I should have lengthened the stitch a bit but if anyone wants to lie on the floor to examine the finished product, go to it. In the wearing, it looks like the original finish.  *If you look closely, you can see the shadow of the folded fabric on the underside.

• One pair down, several more to go. Why oh why did I let this go? Because I am not fond of mending or repairs, that's why.
• In my continuous study of the life and times of Jane Austen, I am re-watching the 1995 version of Sense and Sensibility. The long suffering Miss Dashwood makes me feel rather inadequate. Such a selfless, charming woman. With each character I wonder who, in real life, Jane modeled her characters? The aprons worn by the ladies are popular again these days, everything comes around.
• All the "fluffing about" when men, suitors, come to visit, sets my skin to crawl, like ticks. Times were SO different. I would not have done well. Much like Jane, I prefer to make my own way.