How to Hem Jeans

You know that feeling you get when you purchase the perfect pair of jeans and all you want to do is put them on and strut your stuff? Unfortunately, the jeans are way too long and you want to wear them now! This is a common issue in our household seeing as I am obsessed with jeans, have short legs, and am extremely impatient.

I used to think jeans were so difficult to hem and I never liked them quite as much after hemming because they no longer had the original stitching.

Then I discovered an easy way to keep your old hem without cutting off tons of fabric and possibly ruining your brand new pair of jeans. The original tutorial can be found here. For someone like me who tends to have to sew things twice to get it right, this is a great technique.

Instructions

First, put on those fabulous jeans and decide how much material you need to remove. I love this hemming method because you don't have to spend an hour pinning and re-pinning to make each cuff match the other. Just measure the excess.

Next, cut that measurement in half. If you need to take off 2 inches, now you are going off of a 1 inch measurement.

Now, make a cuff and measure this amount (the 1 inch) from the original hem edge, not the end of the jeans. Measure and pin all the way around your new cuff.
Stitch along the edge of the original hem. The sides can get tricky. I always start on the outside seam, the one that shows the jean thread. This ensures that when you flip the pant leg right-side-out, the threads that stand out will align all the way down the leg.
Flip the material inside the leg. Iron the new hem down and presto, shorter pants, same old hem. (If having the excess on the inside bothers you, simply cut it off.)
I've included a picture of a wide hem as well. I find this hemming technique works best with wide hemmed jeans. It can be a bit trickier with the normal thin hems like the one above.
Estimated hem time is about 10 minutes so you can be in your jeans and feelin' good in no time. Good luck and happy hemming!