Saturday, May 8, 2010

All Hemmed Up!

I have a constant battle with Miss M about her clothes, but it's not a battle about style or colour.  Our battle is that when we buy clothes (especially jeans and trousers) they usually fit around the top, but the bottoms ALWAYS need hemming.  Miss M is 5 years old, but fits into a size 10!  She is very tall for her age as well.  I recently bought her a pair of size 12 (!!!!!!!) jeans.  Current fashion dictates that skinny jeans be the only choice available to consumers in the shops (arrrrgh!) which both Miss M and I are NOT built for.  We've had the discussion, dealt with this disappointment in our lives and moved on. 

The jeans fit her really well around her waist, but the length in the legs was way too long.  I love the hemming that is on the bottom of store bought jeans and no matter how hard I have tried to re-create it at home, thus far I have been unsuccessful.  So, I have come up with the perfect solution where I can shorten the length of the leg while keeping the original hem!  "How does she do it?"I hear you ask.  Well read on...

Firstly I measured how much length we needed to lose (10cms!).  I folded the hem up, pinned it together up near the top (I'll get to the reason why a bit later) and made a chalk line 5cms from the fold line.


Then I cut the excess away with sharp scissors (and a strong hand!) and sewed the new edges together with the overlocker, hence the pins up the top. *Note: Pins + Overlockers = Not Good!*

After that we raided the expansive collection of ribbons and chose a wide ribbon and pinned it in place over the top of the new seam and then stitched it in place along the top and bottom of the ribbon.



Here's the finished product - cute jeans with a ribbon trim!  No-one would ever guess how much needed to be cut off and now they fit perfectly :)  And the best part is the jeans only cost $10 and the ribbon $2.


7 comments:

  1. Excellent! Here's another way that I discovered when I was pregnant, and needed to hem maternity jeans that came in a one length fits all fashion - argh! It was mama-magic, keeping the original hem intact! This might come in handy when your daughter is older and ribbon is less in than it is now =)

    http://www.daciaray.com/?p=38

    Camille =)

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  2. Why have I never thought of this??? I too have to buy bigger sizes for Miss 4 and I too have tried to recreate the store-bought hem. Thanks for this little gem - I'll be sure to use it on all her pants in the future! Great tip Mrs Sew & So's.

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  3. Brilliant! These are so cute and clever...well done!

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  4. Very clever. I need to find a way to add inches to the bottom of Poppy's favourite jeans - they still fit but are too short, and of course have a scalloped hem with embroidered flowers.

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  5. Hello Louise, this is such an ace idea. My saving grace was elastic on the inside of pants (not around when i had my eldest) as they are whippit thin & nothing touches their sides. Lucky children. Goes to show all shapes & sizes & the children's fashion industry sometimes gets it. I just find for over 10s, they offer up completely unsuitable rubbish, vampires, black, just awful, so i stick to what i know. Love Posie

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  6. I agree Posie - the styles in the shops are hideous! Black, black and more black! I have such difficulty finding clothes that make her look like a 5 year old instead of 10. Luckily Miss M still loves pink and purple and we can manage to scrape a few outfits together for the season. Michelle, you could use a wide ribbon to add length to Poppy's jeans. I'm sure you've got some stashed away somewhere! Would look very pretty with the embroidery - unless of course you had to cut right through it!

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