A few weeks later I tried to thread it for the first time. It took me over an hour and I was {beyond frustrated} with the whole thing. I only took it out one or two times after that day!
However, lately everybody and their my mother have been hounding me to hem things. So I decided to try again...
My return project was to hem my mom's favorite pair of jeans. Oh great! No pressure!
I'd agreed to try but I told her she would have to deal with white thread, which is what I originally got in the machine all those months ago. All my projects will have white thread until it runs out!!! When that time comes I'm not sure what will happen (probably the murder of the person standing closest when I try to re-thread it). It's probably not even really that hard to do. I'm just a basket-case with very little patience for that kinda thing! Maybe I'll take a class...
Anyways, so I set out searching for tutorials (on pinterest of course!). After looking through a bunch I figured it'd be easy enough...and I'd even be able to keep the original hem!
Fold to desired length-pin-sew under original hem-get rid of excess- {voila!!}
I could do that!!!!
First I measured out and folded up how much I would be taking off the jeans. In my mom's case the pants were two inches too long. (Note: have the person wear shoes when determining the length) So I measured two inches and folded to that length.
The next step-pinning the fold in place-is really important! I couldn't find the million pins that I know are in this house somewhere so I improvised and used these garage sale bargain-for 25 cents-paper clips.
My advice? Find your damn pins if you have them, or go to the dollar store and get 'em. These things didn't keep my fabric from bunching at all, which makes for some pretty uneven sewing!
Next I began sewing right underneath the original hem-as close to it as I could get. Apparently it takes extreme concentration and multiple pauses for readjustment in order for me to sew a straight line...
By the second leg I had it almost down pat. Again- real pins would have helped here!
If you're a spaz like me, don't worry too much. My line issues did not really affect the look of the pant hem.
Once sewn, if you are sure of the hem (I certainly was not) you can cut off the excess fabric underneath the line you stitched. In the case that you are like me and totally doubting your work, just fold it up and underneath until you're sure!
The final step is to fold that little strip of the original hem down and to iron it flat.
If you did all this with minimal issues- I certainly had a few- you should end up with a pretty decent-looking hem job..and in my case one happy momma!
Here's the finished product...
I was really proud of myself for this and am happy to say it has renewed my desire to learn my way around my machine. Good luck to you all in your own stitching adventures!
Awesome you can make me yoga pants!
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