# Shortening jeans while maintaining the original hem!



## Boteroesque Babe (Sep 12, 2006)

Petites are too short for me, but sometimes a regular inseam is too long, and a regular old grandma hem in your jeans makes it look like, well, your grandma did it. (No offense to granny seamstresses, but if you're gonna wear jeans, y'want 'em to look like jeans, no?)

Well, God and Google have shown me the light. The "European Hem." It shortens your jeans while keeping your original hem -- with its jeans-y details -- intact. You can pay a tailor 20 bucks, or do it at home in the time it takes a _Daily Show_ interviewee to realize this, in fact, _won't_ help his cause and/or business.

Just wanted to share this with my fat sistahs.

http://daciaray.com/?p=38

It's not mentioned in the tutorial, but if you're hemming the Denim Lites, or any of the jeans with a bit of stretch, you'll want to adjust your thread and stitch accordingly.

Edited to add: mmm... shortening... *Homer drool* 

View attachment european hem.jpg


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## Paul (Sep 12, 2006)

BB I agree with most of the tutorial, except for one point. In the picture on the tutorial and the picture you posted it seens as if you turned up the orignal hem leaving the original folded hem in place. In my experience leaving the original hem in place produces too much bulk at the hem which often causes the hem to roll up inside out.

My method of producing a hem is to cut the amount needed plus one inch for proper length. Then either serge the raw edge or using the zig zag on the edge were one needle misses the fabric and the next hits the fabric. This prevents the fabrics threads from faying. Turn the hem up once--do not fold twice as the fabric edge is protected by the serging/zig-zaging. Press and stich close to the serged edge. There is less bulk in this method and less likelihood of the hem rooling inside out.




Boteroesque Babe said:


> Petites are too short for me, but sometimes a regular inseam is too long, and a regular old grandma hem in your jeans makes it look like, well, your grandma did it. (No offense to granny seamstresses, but if you're gonna wear jeans, y'want 'em to look like jeans, no?)
> 
> Well, God and Google have shown me the light. The "European Hem." It shortens your jeans while keeping your original hem -- with its jeans-y details -- intact. You can pay a tailor 20 bucks, or do it at home in the time it takes a _Daily Show_ interviewee to realize this, in fact, _won't_ help his cause and/or business.
> 
> ...


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## Boteroesque Babe (Sep 13, 2006)

I agree about not leaving the folded fabric attached, Paul. While the photo does indeed show it still attached, the instruction says you may trim it to a half-inch. 

But if you're talking about the ORIGINAL original hem, leaving that intact is the _idea_ of this method. People generally don't want to lose that trademark jeans edge, and by removing the extra length _above_ that factory hem, rather than lopping off the bottom and hemming them, the jeans look as if they'd never been altered.


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## BeaBea (Sep 13, 2006)

If the jeans have detailing or that cool, 'ready scuffed bit' at the back of the hem then thats what I do. (And I would trim off the extra but only because it tends to get caught up on your shoes/boots otherwise)

If they are just plain old jeans though I always thread up with that orange-y colour (or close to) that jeans are stitched with. No-one ever looks close enough to know it's faked and it from a distance it looks much better than if you use blue or invisible stitching.

Tracey xx


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## seavixen (Sep 13, 2006)

I've modified a lot of ugly jeans (before there were as many choices in supersized jeans, I did a LOT of "creative" attempts to hide the fact that they only had three pockets, or had tapered legs, or what have you) I just use the goldeny-orangey thread. Never had any trouble matching the colour or making the seams look authentic, even when I've replaced zippers. The orangey stuff is pretty easy to find.. I have some in a nice heavy weight and some thinner stuff as well. Sometimes you might need to use a dark blue in conjunction with the golden stuff to perfectly match how the seams were (sometimes they're almost invisible on the inside but gold on the outside, etc.).. but the stitching is often a little shoddy on jeans. If you look closely... chances are you'll find uneven hems and such, lol.

I'm a really crap seamstress, by the way. Hems aren't all that hard to fake if you study how the hem was done while you're deconstructing. Of course if there's fraying or something... well, then you probably do want to keep it intact. But, on the upside, there are a lot of WIDE hem jeans/pants out there right now, too.. which means that when you're shortening you can actually improve upon the trend quotient of your jeans if they have a boring hem.


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## bigdog (Sep 14, 2006)

I have never had this problem. I always take my jeans to a local seamstress and she shortens them while maintaining the exact look of the jeans. She even matches the thread color.

I don't think I'd like that doubled up fabric at the bottom.


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