My First Project: Altering a Hem

It's the curse of the tall woman: I had a pair of wide leg jeans in my closet that I never really wore because they were too short.

I have a bit of experience hemming things, from sewing a few garments.  So how hard can it be to rehem a pair of pants? Ok, they're not trousers. They're stretch denim jeans. But it still can't be that hard, right?

After a bit of examination, I can see that ripping out the hem seam will be a relatively simple process. The hardest problem is the very stretchy, thick elastic thread. I pull out my handy, dandy seam ripper. Do you own one of these? If not, you should.

All I did was run that bad boy around the whole hemline until all the stitches were loose.

So here they are, with the hem let out completely.  This adds about five inches of total length, more than enough to make them non-high-waters!

But look at that lovely line where the previous hem was turned and pressed . Hmmm, how to hide that? I will have to consider. Trim? Fabric ink or paint? Permanent marker?

Next installment: Putting in a new hem.