How to shorten your jeans with your own hands and make the seam look like a factory one - step by step instructions with a photo.
If you at least once shortened your jeans with your own hands, then you probably faced such a problem: the finished seam due to the lack of scuffs looks flat. There are different ways to avoid this: for example, you can hem jeans while maintaining a factory seam, or try using some kind of abrasive material like emery. The method described in this workshop is a bit different. Scuffs here are imitated using acrylic paint for textiles. This takes a little longer, but the result is good and there is no way to damage the seam, as happens when working with abrasive.
Use acrylic for textiles and a needle for a denim clipper.
How to shorten jeans and keep a factory seam
You will need:
- jeans;
- scissors for fabric;
- crayon;
- ruler;
- tailor pins;
- needle for hand sewing and thick durable thread for basting;
- suitable threads for hemming jeans;
- sewing machine;
- a needle for a denim machine;
- hammer;
- spray with water;
- Acrylic paints for textiles (white, plus paints close to the color of your jeans, if you want to further darken the seam area);
- a small flat hard brush;
- polyethylene to protect the work surface.
How to hem jeans manually with a double seam forward the needle
Step 1
Try on jeans, determine the desired length and put a mark on one of the legs.
Fold the jeans as shown in the photo.
Align the jeans so that they are folded exactly in half, align the edges of the belt and pin the jeans with pins, fixing their upper edge.
Spread the legs, align and align the step and side seams.
Chip the legs over the mark with pins. Draw a line at the mark level perpendicular to the side seam.
From the drawn line, set aside the distance necessary for the stock. We double-tilt the edge of the leg: this distance should be equal to the width of the desired gate x2. In our case, the width of the doorway is 1.3 cm, lay aside 2.6 cm. Put a mark and draw a line parallel to the first at its level.
Cut the legs in the bottom line. Remove all pins.
Step 2
Cut the allowances with a corner and cut the thick spots at the seams, as shown in the photo. Be careful: the cut-out places can then be hidden by the back door. We do this to reduce the overall thickness of the seam and facilitate the operation of the sewing machine.
If we want to make an imitation of scuffs, it is better not to iron the flaps so that the edge does not turn out flat. Therefore, we sweep them. First, we tuck the edges of the legs inward by 1.3 cm and mark.
Then once again we turn the edge and again lay the mark.
To make the thickest places flatter, tap them with a hammer. This will make it easier to pass them by car.
Stitch the flaps, retreating from a fold of 1-2 mm.
Step 3
Cover the work surface with polyethylene and moisten the bottom of the legs with a spray gun. The fabric should not be completely damp, but rather moderately damp.
This step will suit you if you used thread in jeans color for stitching. In our case, jeans are stitched with dark blue threads, and similar ones were used for sewing along the bottom of the legs. Therefore, paint in denim color will not change the color of the stitch. But it will be possible to darken the seam area. Pick colors that match your fabric in color (I mixed a little blue, purple and black) and dilute them with water. For fidelity, it is better to first test the paint on the cut pieces of the legs.
With a brush, apply diluted paint a little on the seam area.
Repeat from the inside.
Now you need to let the paint and jeans dry. Wait for it to dry, otherwise the result may not be the one we are aiming for, as white and dark paint will mix and can give a dirtyish tint. To speed up the drying process, you can use a hairdryer.
Step 4
To simulate scuffs, the resulting upheaval must be picked up. Use a thick strong thread in two additions and a hand needle. First, sew the stitches along the stitch that sews the collar. The stitch is about 0.5 cm long. Do not try to make them even and exactly the same. When finished, fasten the thread.
Repeat, this time laying the stitches along the bottom edge of the turn.
It should look something like this:
Step 5
Moisten the bottom of the legs again. Prepare the white paint. It does not need to be diluted with water. Brush a little paint and remove excess so that the brush is semi-dry.
With light movements, brush with a brush over the protruding places of the doorway. Repeat from the inside out.
Paint the bottom edge as well.
Then slightly bend the gate inside and walk with a brush at the bend.
Let the jeans dry. When the paint dries, you can remove the mark, evaluate the result and, if necessary, add a little paint (and dry again). Done.
Master class and photo: Natalya Pykhova
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