"I
need a book with instructions on hemming blue jeans; it is getting too costly
to have someone else hem them for me. I
would also like them to still look as finished as they were before I shortened
them." The staff of the Newton
Falls Public Library has their own memories of children complaining about the
appearance of clothing after shortening or alterations, and can understand a
mother wanting to be frugal.
We
found a variety of instructions for hemming different types of clothing and
fabrics in sewing books on our shelves, such as the "Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Sewing." However, none seemed to deal specifically with
blue jeans or denim. From our shared
CLEVNET catalog, our patron placed a hold on the book "How to Make Pants and Jeans That Really Fit."
In
the event this book does not deal with alterations, we searched online for the
words "hemming blue jeans." There
were many video tutorials available, but our patron wanted to have printed
sheets to which she could refer. www.instructables.com/id/Hemming-Jeans-the-easy-way
had instructions which included cutting off the bottom of the jeans to shorten
them, adding a decorative backstitch with gold thread, and roughing up the
edges with sandpaper to give them a more commercially manufactured look. The websites Make It and Love It and Just Something I Made had similar instructions for hemming the jeans while maintaining the original
bottom edge. Our patron liked the option
of folding up some fabric and stitching closely to the original finished edge. As her children grew, she could let down the
hem and make the jeans longer. If the
hem does not need to be re-let down, the excess fabric can be cut off and the
edges finished. Many websites also
suggested using a denim needle in the machine to make sewing easier and to
reduce the risk of a broken needle.
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