Decide the length
Put the jeans on with the shoes you will wear most often. Fold the hem under until the length looks right, and pin it. Check it in a mirror from the front and the side. The fold at the front of the shoe is called the break, and the measuring guide describes the common options.
If the jeans are raw or unsanforized, wash or soak them before hemming. They can lose length in the first wash, and a hem cut too early may end up too short.
Three kinds of hem
| Hem | What it looks like | Who can do it |
|---|---|---|
| Standard hem | A new double-folded hem, stitched flat | Anyone with a sewing machine that handles denim |
| Original hem | The factory hem is kept and reattached higher up, with a small seam inside | A confident home sewer or a tailor |
| Chain-stitch hem | A looped stitch that twists the hem as it is washed, giving a wavy "roping" pattern | A shop with a chain-stitch hemming machine |
Sewing a standard hem
- With the jeans flat, mark the new finished length with chalk all the way around each leg.
- Add about 1.25 inches below the line for the folds, and cut along that second line.
- Fold the raw edge up by about half an inch and press it. Fold again by about three quarters of an inch, so the raw edge is hidden, and press.
- Use a denim or jeans needle, size 16 or 18 (100 or 110), and a longer stitch length.
- Sew close to the top fold, all the way around. Go slowly over the side seams.
- Press the finished hem, and repeat on the other leg using the first as a guide.
Getting over thick seams
The side seams and inseams are where needles break. Where the folded hem crosses a seam, there can be eight or more layers of denim. A few tricks help:
- Flatten the seam bump by tapping it with a hammer on a hard surface before sewing. Put a scrap of fabric over it to protect the denim.
- Turn the handwheel by hand to walk the needle over the thickest part.
- Place a folded scrap of denim under the back of the presser foot to keep it level as it climbs onto the seam.
Keeping the original hem
An original hem keeps the factory look, including any worn fading at the bottom edge. The hem is folded up by the amount to remove, stitched just below the original hem band, and the extra fabric is trimmed inside and finished. Done well, it is hard to spot from the outside. A small ridge sits where the new seam is, so pressing it flat matters.
Chain-stitch hems
Many older jeans and some modern ones are hemmed with a chain stitch, which forms a row of loops on the inside. As the jeans are worn and washed, the fabric twists slightly along the stitch and forms a wavy pattern of fading called roping. Most home machines can't sew this stitch, so shops that specialize in denim usually do it.
Hemming is not tapering
Shortening the leg doesn't change its width. On tapered and slim jeans, cutting a lot of length off can make the hem wider than you expect, because the leg was narrowest at the original bottom. If you want a narrower leg as well as a shorter one, ask a tailor about tapering. For other fixes, see the repairs guide.