Shortening jeans with hand sewing

If you would like to shorten a pair of jeans, and you don't have a sewing machine, you can shorten them with some hand sewing.

Requirements

 * Jeans that are too long
 * Sewing thread that matches the color of the jeans, preferably polyester thread, which is fairly strong
 * Sewing needle
 * Sewing pins
 * Ruler
 * Scissors
 * Iron
 * Some way to mark jeans (fabric chalk, tape, etc. Nothing permanent.)

Prep
1. Put on the jeans and place a mark where you would like the bottom of the jeans to be, on one of the pant legs. If you use tape, make sure you remember if the top or bottom edge of the tape marks the correct height. Take off the jeans. 2. Use a ruler to measure the width of the hem. It will probably be around half an inch. Double that measurement and remember this new value. 3. Use the ruler to place a new mark on the jeans higher by that new value. (For example, my hem was half an inch wide, so I measured one inch higher than my mark, and put a new mark there.)



4. Transfer the measurement to the other pant leg if you want identical lengths. Otherwise repeat steps 1-3 for the other pant leg. 5. Roll up the bottom of the jeans, so that the bottom is inside out and aligned with the new mark.



6. Use several sewing pins to keep the folded jeans in the right place. The pins should only go through two layers of fabric; don't push them all the way through the other side of the pant leg. Make sure the seams on either side of the leg align. Use a pin directly across each seam to make sure they stay aligned.



7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 on the other pant leg.

Sewing
1. Get about an arm's length of thread. Tie a knot in one end. For the other end, thread a few inches through the needle, and try to keep the thread in the needle with your hand while you sew. If the thread slips out at any time, just rethread it back into the needle. A self-threading needle makes it very easy to get the thread back in the needle.



2. We'll be using a backstitch. Just under the hem, thread the needle through the two layers of pants, from the outside to the inside. 3. Thread the needle back through to the outside, about two centimeters to the left (the shorter the stitch, the stronger the seam will be).

4. Thread the needle to the inside again, this time to the right and half the amount from the previous step (one centimeter in this case.)

5. Keep repeating steps 3 and 4. It's basically: long stitch forward, short stitch back, long stitch forward, short stitch back, etc.

6. You'll probably run out of thread before you get all the way around the pant leg, so when you only have five or six inches of thread, tie a knot:
 * Thread the needle in and out of one layer in a small stitch (around half a centimeter), along the same sewing line you have been making, but don't pull the thread all the way through yet. Put the needle through the loop of thread, then pull it tight. Do this two or three times near the same spot. See the images in step 15.
 * Cut off the excess thread.

7. Repeat steps 1 through 6, starting from where you left off with the last thread.

8. Keep going until you have sewed all the way around the pant leg, back to where you started. Tie the thread like in step 6 and cut off the excess thread.

9. Remove the sewing pins from the leg you just finished.

10. Use scissors to cut off the extra fabric, about a centimeter or two below your new stitch line. 11. Get some new thread into a needle with a knot in the end, and use a whip stitch on the remaining excess fabric to prevent fraying, as in the following steps.

12. Near the edge of the excess fabric, thread the needle through, outside to inside. 13. Move left about a centimeter and thread the needle through, again outside to inside. When you tighten the thread, it should have gone over top of the excess fabric. 14. Keep threading it through, outside to inside, a centimeter to the left each time.

15. If and when you run out of thread, make a knot as in step 6. Get some new thread and continue the whip stitch until you've gone all the way around the leg. 16. Cut off any excess thread. 17. Repeat all the Sewing steps for the other pant leg.

Ironing
1. Fold the hems of both pant legs down, and make sure the excess fabric on the inside of the jeans is folded flat, facing the top of the jeans.

2. Iron the new hems to flatten them out.

3. All done!

More resources

 * How to Hem Jeans (by Hand) on Youtube