hello ladies (& men if you like),
i must deviate from the expected bean topics to toss out this tidbit on jeans & how-to (or not to) shorten them!
i was at a favorite consignment store this week when i happened upon the most beautiful pair of 7 jeans, A pockets. (if i've lost you, bear with me)....in my size. at a good price. in great shape. i had to have them.
upon returning home i got right to work on hemming them (because i have to hem everything) and discovered that someone already had - but not the "right" way.
ouch.
now, if you look at your jeans, you'll notice that they are hemmed before any of the washing or distressing takes place. thus, the hems of your jeans get washed & worn a bit. when you cut this off to hem them, it destroys the character of the jean! what you end up with is a veeerrry clean edge & probably some uneven stitching in a thread color that is not quite right.
so, what you want to do is this:
put your new treasures on & turn up the material inside the leg, leaving the original hem where you would like it to fall, below the ankle. pin & take them off. then measure to make sure you have a consistent amount all the way around. now turn them inside out & stitch, just below the original stitch line. then tack that extra fabric to the seams (with a hand stitch on the inside).
voila! you have beautifully hemmed jeans & no one can see any stitching. the original hem is intact.
if this is all too much, simply take your jeans to a tailor & tell them to "keep the original hem". but please, please whatever you do, don't create the jean faux pas & cut them off clean!
thank-you.
(i would like to dedicate this blog to the ladies of tommy hilfiger - at least they were at the time. without their guidance, i might have created numerous crimes against beautiful jeans).
