Expensive jeans are treated to have lovely worn and tattered hems. When you need to shorten them, you can use bleach and sandpaper to get the same look, but it’s much easier and faster to just cut the hem off, and re-sew the ragged hem back on.

Step 1



Measure your hem. Be sure the jeans have been washed several times, so that they won’t continue to shrink.

Step 2



Remember, you’re cutting the ragged hem off, and sewing it back on, so you will be adding the height of the hem back on. Subtract your seam allowance, but add on the height of the hem.

Step 3



Pin as shown, being sure to match the front to the front, and the back to the back. Sew 1/4 inch away from the fold, as shown (marked with purple marker). Denim is thick and heavy – where there are flat felled seams, it’s quite bulky – for ease in hemming, put the jeans on a flat, hard surface, and hit them with a hammer. This flattens out the fabric, and makes them much easier to hem. You really need a jeans needle, or a #16 to hem denim. Practice on some scraps before you sew, to be sure your tension is correct, and you will use a longer stitch than usual.


Step 4



Press up your hem, and stitch very close to seam line with matching thread on the outside of the jeans. Be sure to use a matching shade of thread, and you will want to use a shorter stitch length so that the stitches melt into the denim. I like a wider seam allowance inside the jean leg, as I whip it down with loose stitches as that makes the jean hem “stay put” and not flip up, when you launder it.  Of course you can choose a shorter seam allowance, and I have chosen to pink the edges, as I find it to be less bulky, but you can also serge or zig zag the seam allowance.

That’s it! It does have a very small seam in the pants, but you really don’t notice it.


Soft Scrub



Soft Scrub is a paste used for cleaning, but you can use it to customize your jeans. When you apply regular bleach to you jeans, you can’t see it, and it’s hard to control. Soft scrub is a white, thick liquid; you can apply to your jeans, with a foam brush to lighten specific areas.

How to customize your jeans:
Find a friend, some safety pins, and some chalk. Put on the jeans and rub the chalk on your jeans to make light areas, and look in the mirror to see what you look like. As general rule, lighter patches make you look bigger, and darker areas make you look smaller. If you have a big booty, keep it dark. If you’d like more curves, add some pale areas to the seat. Everyone looks better with longer legs, so a lighter area, down the front of the jeans is a nice look. You can practice with the chalk, until you like what the jeans look like. At this point, mark the areas you want to lighten with the safety pins, and take the jeans off, and paint on the soft scrub with a foam brush.  Put newspaper or an old towel inside the jean leg, so nothing will seep through.  Apply Soft Scrub to the areas you want to be lightest,  then paint on more layers of  Soft Scrub over the whole pant leg, to blend the light and dark areas.

For the best results, you will want to make some test patches on the inside hem of the jeans – make a small dot of Soft Scrub, and leave it for 5 minutes – then wash it out, to see how quickly the denim lightens up with Soft Scrub.

It would be good to practice with some old jeans or some from the Goodwill, and this is a time where several applications, over time are much better than one. It’s better to build up a fade, than to beach too much.

You can use sandpaper or rasps, to distress your denim – tuck a roll of newspaper in the pockets to protect the jeans, while you distress the edge.

Look at really worn jeans, to see the common wear patterns, this will help your jeans to look authentic, and have fun!


Stencil



Pour some Soft Scrub on a saucer, and let dry until it is thick and pasty. Spray the back of a stencil with quilt basting spray or spray adhesive. Stick to your jeans, and paint on the Soft Scrub with a brush. Carefully remove the stencil, and let the bleach work – in this case, I’ve done a subtle flower, but you could leave the bleach on the fabric for a long time, and get a bold, pale look. Again, this is a time to do samples, so you’ll get the results you want.

   Photos this page: James Keller