DIY Jeans...Keeping the Original Hem

Last week I did something I almost never do...went shopping. For clothes. For me. Not my favorite thing to do (who needs to buy clothes when your best friend keeps you stocked), but Shannon managed to drag me to the mall for an hour of fun at The Gap. It also helps that her sister works there...which equaled a nice discount.

One hour, a few dollars, and some major dressing room meltdowns later, I walked out with a bag full. Two needed purchases: new jeans. I'm not really sure who they make jeans to fit, but it definitely isn't me. And it really stinks to spend money on clothes to turn around and have to have them altered. But, at the end of the day, the jeans were really long. As in way toooooooo long. So I decided to pull out the sewing machine and try to hem them myself. And to keep the original hem. There's nothing worse than a pair of badly hemmed jeans...well, there are a lot of things worse, but you get the idea...

Step 1: Determine the length you want your new inseam to be. Subtract it from the old inseam. Divide the difference by 2. For me this was 32-29=3. 3 divided by 2 = 1.5

Step 2: Make a cuff the size of your number and iron it down.

Step 3: Turn the pants leg inside out and stitch along the orinigal hem.

Step 4: Stitch up the side to prevent the cuff from falling down.

Step 6: Turn jeans right side out and press.

Some people might cut the excess fabric off. Because I didn't have that much, I decided to stitch the sides up and keep it. New clothes are awesome. New clothes that fit are even better. Especially when alterations were $0!

Rachel :)