How to Shorten Jeans the Easy (Easier) Way

My problem (well, the one that I'm sharing) is that I'm not tall enough for medium length jeans, but am too tall for short length jeans. That means I either have to wear jeans that drag on the floor or I need to hem them. 

I had three pair(s) of blue jeans that were too long, but had avoided trying to hem them because I was afraid that I'd simply have been trading one tackiness for another. At least that was my excuse. That's until my daughter told me about this nifty way to shorten jeans without any obvious, weird hemline.

I took the above photos to try to give you a play by play of how this works. The first pair was not so easy, until I understood the instructions. After that, I could have shortened several pair in no time.

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Put jeans on. Put your shoes on, the ones you're going to most likely wear with those jeans.


1. Fold jeans up (wrong side out) until jeans are the right length. Pin all around.

Measure the length you folded up. (for example, 3".) Write it down. Take jeans off. (This is kinda important) ;-)

2. Unpin the jeans, fold back down. Make a row of pins all the way around the pant leg at 3".

Measure from very bottom of jeans up the leg of the jeans to 4" (one inch more than what you'd measured). Make a line of pins all the way around the leg at that length, the 4" above the leg hem edge. (the very bottom). (I found the first row of pins to be a nuisance, and with the second and third pairs, just measured one inch more than the measurement in step 1, rather than having two rows of pins.

3. Fold bottom of hem edge up (wrong side out) to the pin line.

4. Sew a straight line right up against the original hem.

5. Just under that straight line you just sewed, zigzag around the pant leg (at least twice), or use a blanket stitch.

6. Cut off the excess just below the zigzag. I don't have a serger, but I suppose you could use one of those.

7. Turn hem down and sew another line right on the original hem seam line. I think it's called the 'stitch in the ditch,' to help it lie flat and avoid a second obvious line.

8. This is what it looks like on the outside. You can hardly tell that any alterations have been made.

9.  This is what it looks like on the inside.

What I have noticed is that when you wash and dry your jeans the next time, they will fray right up to the zigzag line, so make sure that is a good, sturdy (double) seam. Trim any frayed strings. You might have to press the hem flat before wearing your jeans, but I found this to be a really easy way to shorten my jeans and have them look decent.

If my instructions are confusing, try the original instructions in the link below.

You're right: I'm not clever enough to have thought this up. The original post with the idea came from:

 http://www.craftsy.com/blog/2014/11/how-to-shorten-jeans/

P.S. German Shepherd included to keep you from getting bored. Or to keep me from getting bored as I was hemming the jeans!

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Happy alterations!

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