I’ve had these jeans for about 4 years now. Not sure why I bought them as they are made for a 6ft supermodel! I would wear them with the most ridiculous turn ups or not such huge turn ups and have them drag on the ground. So when I started sewing, I thought, finally I might be able to shorten my jeans. Then I got carried away learning new things and forgot all about them. Then I remembered them but got scared. Those inside leg seams are very thick. Then I read Matt Chapple’s (winner of the GBSB 3) blog post on shortening jeans and was convinced to give it a go. He made it sound so easy. I haven’t worn these jeans much for the last of couple of years, so to be able to shorten them and make more wearable has been so satisfying.

Here they are before.

Just too darn long!

This is what I cut off.

I think I cut off about 10cm and then turned them up about another 1.5 cm. I was trying to avoid turning the hem over twice as I was concerned about the thickness of the fabric and getting it through the machine. So I started off by zigzagging the raw edge, but realised this wasn’t going to look right so I had to turn the ends of the fabric over, could only afford to do it a little bit (or else the jeans would be too short). I bought denim needles for the machine as I thought it best, because of the thickness of fabric. I also bought some topstitch thread in the best colour match I could find. Which turned out quite well.

The side seams have ended up a bit messy, but they won’t be seen.

The inside leg seam, I did struggle a bit to get it through the sewing machine. Had to be very firm with it.

This bit looks neater.

The topstitch thread.

Looks pretty good right side out.

So much more wearable now.

Very happy to have finally done this.

A very satisfying job.

These have become my favourite jeans again. The perfect length for me now.