How to make jeans a little longer - with a hem facing!

How to make jeans a little longer - with a hem facing!

• 10.14.2013

Let's roll back to 2010. I did this tutorial on how to make your jeans a little longer.

Well, I just something similar (but even cooler) to these flared, slightly high-waisted Gap Outlet jeans that I got at Grocery Outlet. Ha!! Grocery Outlet is a chain of locally owned discount stores that normally have a sort of sketchy selection of produce but are known for their high quality wines at good prices and are a great place to find organic and health food store-type snack foods (like a whole box of Lara Bars for $10!). And Kiss My Face hand soap and castille soap! They also occasionally have clothes from Old Navy, Target, Kmart, whatever. Rumor has it that my friend's friend once got a pair of Jack Purcels there for $5 back in high school. The stuff of legend!! But I can believe it happened. Amazing.

So they had a whole huge rack of these Gap Outlet flares there last time I was there (circa Summer 2012, as the label inside says) and I bought a pair (without trying them on, of course--no changing rooms at a grocery store). Luckily they fit great except the length. Too short to wear with heels, which is kind of the point of wearing big flares! They didn't have my size in a longer length.

But they're cute, and unlike anything else I have, and husband loved them. So I thought I'd give them a hem facing, using the extra fabric in the (deep) hem. Remember that old tutorial for lengthening jeans? This one's even cooler since it leaves you with some nice extra weight to keep the jeans laying flat and behaving like the strong hem of store-bought hemmed jeans.

Let's do this!!

How to Make Jeans Longer - With a Hem Facing!

1./2. Unpick the original hem stitching and press the leg openings flat.

3. With a fabric of a similar weight to the jeans, cut a hem facing piece with a 1/2" seam allowance on all sides and above the original seam line at the top.
(Lay the jeans leg flat, and while the front panel is probably narrower than the back, you can cut both your hem facing pieces the same width--the side seams won't match up exactly, but that's okay.)

Cut 4.

4.Sew the sets right sides together.

5. Press side seams open. (Cutting the notch at the center will help you line the hem facing with the jeans, since your side seams won't match up if the front and back pieces are different widths.)

6. Pin right sides together (anchor at center front and back notches, and sides). Turn jeans inside out so you can see the original fold line of the turn-under of the original hem. Sew along that line (in between the perforations of the back side of the original hem seam).

 7. Press the seam toward the hem facing, then fold the hem facing back on the jeans, putting the seam along the edge. Press under the top edge of the hem facing 1/2" and pin. (I know it would be easier to do this pressing before you sew it down and fold it back on itself, but I just wanted to make sure it lined up with the original hem seam line on the outside--you'll see in the next step.)

8. Again from the right side so you can see the original seam line, sew through the original seam indentation, capturing the 1/2" turn-under of the hem facing. (You can just barely see a couple of my pins still in place, from the photo above.)

Give it an extra press and you're good to go!


I made these more than an inch longer!

Give it a try!!