Jeans Completed

So I decided I really didn't want to draw attention to the hem of the pants, so I went a different direction. I decided to use a decorative stitch on my machine to cover the faded mark from the previous hem.

I started with a sample on an old piece of muslin. Unless I'm just playing around, I always make a little sample. It is important to test your thread tension, stitch length, etc.

I also changed the needle on my machine. I just learned about Universal needles and how they were made to be used on both cotton fabrics and knits.  So I put in a Universal needle, in a size smaller than I usually use.

I used a dark navy blue thread.  I thought I might need a stabilizer, but these jeans are quite sturdy and elastic. I tried the decorative stitch on the very bottom of the jeans first, which ended up being folded up into the final hem.

Here is a comparison between the jeans before the stitch (L) and after (R).

The trickiest part of this process was not catching the underside of the pants while sewing.

For the final hem, I folded the raw edge under 1/4", then folded it in again 1/4" and pressed it with a hot iron.  Instead of using my sewing machine's blind hem stitch, I just sewed a straight stitch with the wrong side of jeans turned out so I could go along the edge of the turned under seam.

While I was reduxing these jeans, I wanted to fix one more issue.  I bought them with this strange button closure on the back, between the back belt loops. I guess you could use it to adjust the waist, but I didn't need it. It just made a wierd lump on my back. So I took it off!

The trusty seam ripper to  the rescue again!

Here's the finished product! You can see in the background that my hubby was watching The Incredible Hulk, when I interrupted him to take photos!