hem hacks

Today let us be thankful for.....  Okay, so this is going to sound really strange, but it just goes to show you that God is ever present in your life. I get inspirations from the weirdest places. So I'm watching American Horror Story Asylum. (not a very good show for Christians). But there in the middle of this very inappropriate show is God, talking to me...Nun relays a story of her childhood. About how she prayed and prayed for hours over this dead squirrel. She cries to her mom, "God didn't answer my prayer!" Her mom replies, "God always answers prayer, most of the time the answer isn't what we expect." Isn't that the truth!

Wanted to share with you a trick my cousins fiance' showed me. Do you get frustrated because you hem your jeans and then they look tacky? You can't ever get that factory hem look. Well now you don't have to! Check it out.
Step One: Have the wearer put pants on, then cuff them to where the back of the heel is barely touching the floor (or table cause I don't want to sit on the floor). Pin and then have them carefully remove pants. Iron where that line is to give you a strong guideline. It helps to have a ruler and put the ruler on the inside of the cuff, matching the existing hem to the same spot on the ruler all the way around ironing as you go.  

Step Two: Pull cuff out and refold to your guide line. I put the very bottom of the hem to the right of the crease as seen in the photo.

Step Three: The picture below shows the jeans inserted into the sewing machine with the exact same fold and sides as the above picture. Place the needle above the bottom of the hem, the rest of the leg and crotch are to the left of the machine. I can't stress enough this is exactly as the above picture shows just inserted into the machine. Make sure the leg is around your machine so that your not sewing the leg closed.

Step Four: Now pull the bottom of the hem down, put the extra material up into the pantleg, you'll be cutting off the extra after the final fitting. The bottom picture shows (left to right) the original guideline, the new hem, the original stitch line, and the bottom of the hem.

Below see the finished result, have your wearer try it on for a final fit, better to be safe than sorry, you can take the stitches out but it's a lot harder to reattach the cut off fabric. Happy Sewing!