Alterations – Jeans

Do you pay someone to do your alterations? Please don’t. It really is so simple to sew your own hem. Seriously. It takes a teeny itty bit of patience to make it look nice, but you can do it.

Do your little kiddos/nieces/nephews/grand kids grow way too fast? Are they too tall for their pants from this past winter but the waist fits just fine? Well, keep on using them and chop them off into shorts.

Why not? Might save you some money.

Elli has enough regular shorts so I decided that I wanted longer shorts, like the little bermuda shorts that are hot right now. So I decided the length that I wanted them and marked it with a pin. Then I added another 1 1/4 inch to the length for the hem. Then I cut them off.

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Then, I cut slits in the side that went up 1 1/4 inch plus another inch so that there would be little slits in the side after they were completed. (Also, this helps the hem lay a little better because pant legs usually aren’t straight up and down. Many styles go in a bit at the knee, making it harder to hem. But the slit helps with that.)

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Then I zig-zag stitched the opening of the slit, to keep it from fraying. And at the top of the slit, I stitched back and forth (like the first step of a button stitch) just to keep the slit from opening up any higher.

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Then I folded the bottom under a 1/2 inch and then another 3/4 of an inch and pinned it into place. You might have to adjust here or there to get it to lay nicely. No worries, it’ll work out.

Then press and go.
(**Remember, you can make these longer like capri’s or shorter like normal shorts. Simple.)

Nice and cool.

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And guess what?

The weather man says that the sun is here to stay.