Pants hemming tutorial
Dec. 6th, 2005 02:15 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
geekpunkgrrl.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
craftgrrlHey I asked last week if people would be interested in a pin-free hemming technique, and I got one yes, so here it is. It's kinda photo heavy. Just for DIY points, the plywood the machine is on is a beirut table balanced across an armchair.
Materials:
pants to be hemmed
dressmaker’s pencil or water-soluble magic marker
4 bobby pins
1. Wash yo’ pants! If you don’t, the seams might pucker or something wack. I don’t know, that’s just what my mom says.
2. Try your pants on. Try folding the cuff up different amounts until the leg you are working with is the right length. Make sure it is the same all the way around. Use either the pencil/marker to make a little dot right on the crease so you can remember where it was once you undo the fold. You might want to have someone help you with this, because when you bend over to mark the leg, your movement will pull the pants up ever so slightly.
3. Turn the pant leg inside out, and measure how far from the existing hem your dot is. Use a tape measure to go around the whole leg, making a dot every inch or two. Make another line of dots 1.5 inches below that line of dots. Cut along the row of dots CLOSER TO THE EXISTING HEM. This will leave you with 1.5 inches of fabric between the first row of dots, and the raw edge.
Measuring your dot:
Making the dot lines:
4. Stick your thumbnail on one of the dots to crease the fabric. Fold the excess fabric down along the same crease. This will give you a 1.5 inch ersatz cuff. Do the crease & fold in 3 or 4 different places, so you’re sure it’s right all the way around. Hold each of these folds in place as you go with a bobby pin.
5. Start sewing! I’m just going to assume people know how to sew a running stitch on a machine. Start right after the seam, and sew a 5/8-inch hem. My machine has little lines on it that tell me how far they are from the needle. If you don’t have that, you can measure and use masking tape. Take the bobby pins off a quarter-inch before the presser-foot gets to them. A SEWING MACHINE WILL NOT SEW OVER BOBBY PINS LIKE IT DOES STRAIGHT PINS!! So now you have a preliminary hem, with about an inch of fabric between the stitches and the raw edge.
6. Now, tuck the raw edge down toward the stitched row. This will only stay in place for about an inch or two before it unrolls on its own. So, as you fold, bobby pin. The four pins will not go all the way around, but as you sew up to them, you will pull them out, and can fold-and-pin the next section. It takes a little patience to go slowly making sure it is properly tucked, but it’s worth it to get the seam right. I sewed my second seam about ¼ inch below the first one. Use your own judgment, but make sure you sew in such a way that it goes through both layers.
A short section pinned:
sewing along:
7. Snip the thread and you’re done. Not too shabby!
Inside:
Outside:
Materials:
pants to be hemmed
dressmaker’s pencil or water-soluble magic marker
4 bobby pins
1. Wash yo’ pants! If you don’t, the seams might pucker or something wack. I don’t know, that’s just what my mom says.
2. Try your pants on. Try folding the cuff up different amounts until the leg you are working with is the right length. Make sure it is the same all the way around. Use either the pencil/marker to make a little dot right on the crease so you can remember where it was once you undo the fold. You might want to have someone help you with this, because when you bend over to mark the leg, your movement will pull the pants up ever so slightly.
3. Turn the pant leg inside out, and measure how far from the existing hem your dot is. Use a tape measure to go around the whole leg, making a dot every inch or two. Make another line of dots 1.5 inches below that line of dots. Cut along the row of dots CLOSER TO THE EXISTING HEM. This will leave you with 1.5 inches of fabric between the first row of dots, and the raw edge.
Measuring your dot:
Making the dot lines:
4. Stick your thumbnail on one of the dots to crease the fabric. Fold the excess fabric down along the same crease. This will give you a 1.5 inch ersatz cuff. Do the crease & fold in 3 or 4 different places, so you’re sure it’s right all the way around. Hold each of these folds in place as you go with a bobby pin.
5. Start sewing! I’m just going to assume people know how to sew a running stitch on a machine. Start right after the seam, and sew a 5/8-inch hem. My machine has little lines on it that tell me how far they are from the needle. If you don’t have that, you can measure and use masking tape. Take the bobby pins off a quarter-inch before the presser-foot gets to them. A SEWING MACHINE WILL NOT SEW OVER BOBBY PINS LIKE IT DOES STRAIGHT PINS!! So now you have a preliminary hem, with about an inch of fabric between the stitches and the raw edge.
6. Now, tuck the raw edge down toward the stitched row. This will only stay in place for about an inch or two before it unrolls on its own. So, as you fold, bobby pin. The four pins will not go all the way around, but as you sew up to them, you will pull them out, and can fold-and-pin the next section. It takes a little patience to go slowly making sure it is properly tucked, but it’s worth it to get the seam right. I sewed my second seam about ¼ inch below the first one. Use your own judgment, but make sure you sew in such a way that it goes through both layers.
A short section pinned:
sewing along:
7. Snip the thread and you’re done. Not too shabby!
Inside:
Outside:
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