Hemming a Wavy Hem #2 - 7 September 2024

Here’s an update about that wavy hemline I needed to shorten.

I started by measuring and pinning the right length but as it was thick denim I also basted by hand in a light pink colour as you can see below :

_{I like the sharp pins with button heads.}

I immediately anticipated where the main difficulty was going to be.

The photo above shows you a very characteristic type of seam in jeans, flat felled seam. You can sometimes find this type of seam on the outside seam of the legs of your jeans. Sometimes it’s used on the inside leg seams. I’ve never made or sewn this sort of seam but I’ve encountered it when hemming. It’s a very secure and neat way of making a seam to join two pieces of this thick material, but it becomes thicker when you try to hem because you end up with three layers of this seam.

In contrast the inside leg of this pair of jeans had a more usual type of seam as you can see below. You can also see how wavy it looks. I was surprised by this type of seam because normally you see the two sides joined into one seam which is then overlocked. I wonder whether or not this was done because of the waviness.

I started machine sewing close to the folded edge using 0.3m stitch length in case I had to unpick :

This was not that difficult to do but then came the dreaded thick side seams and it was not so good. You can see in the photo below how the ‘heavy duty machine’ couldn’t cope very well with such thick seams. It even skipped a couple of stitches so I had to try and sew that bit again.

Although the inside seam was not as thick and did not give as much trouble, it was still not that neat as it became a bit wavy too :

I was not that happy about this type of finishing. When I compared the original cut off hem to the hem I sewed I was surprised to see that at least mine was not as wavy :

I still have a lot to learn about making alterations but I certainly managed to overcome this challenge.

Thank you for reading !