You probably know by now, I’m a big thrift store shopper, especially for clothes.
I found a great pair of Gap jeans that fit perfectly, and only paid $1.25 for them! The only drawback was that they were too short, even for my average-length legs.
This was my easy-peasy solution. It works with or without the extra trim. I just love adding a little flavor to my thrifted goods!
You’ll need:
- One pair of too-short jeans
- seam ripper or razor (use razor with care, I don’t want anyone losing a finger!)
- steam iron set to “cotton”
- optional: trim, ribbon, etc.
- sewing machine
- thread
- scissors
What to do:
- Rip out the hem using a seam ripper, or, if you have a steady hand, a razor works great to get through the heavy duty stitching.
- Press the legs out, removing any bits of thread left from ripping out the seam. You may need steam for this step to get the old hem lines nice and flat.
- If the previous location of the bottom edge is a holey or ragged, you can add ribbon, leftover quilt binding, or any other washable trim by pinning around the outside. Tuck the ends under and then top stitch both edges.
- For an unfinished edge, zig zag around the edge of each leg or use a decorative stitch. Once they’re washed, they’ll fray nice and even.
I’ve got several pairs of jeans like this, all of them found for super cheap and all of them with their own distinctive look. Love them!
Happy crafting
Find my free patterns on Sewhooked & Fandom in Stitches.
♥ Jennifer O
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Sewhooked 
How do you find the thread to pull out a hem quickly instead of picking out each stitch one at a time?
Instead of picking the stitches out, I used a flat razor (like a mini glass scraper) to cut them. There are also a number of razor tools on the market that are just for ripping out seams. After that, I use a lint roller or just regular tape to pick up all the pieces of thread.
Hope that helps!
Jennifer