How to Hem Jeans (Including the Keep-the-Original-Hem Trick)

Here's the quick answer: measure the excess with the jeans ON, cut leaving 3cm below your new length, fold twice (1.5cm and 1.5cm), and sew with a jeans needle and a slightly longer stitch. Gold topstitch thread if you want it to look shop-bought. And if you want to keep the original faded hem, there's a famous trick below.

Step by step, the standard way

1. Mark with them on. Wear the shoes you'll wear with them. Fold the excess under, pin the new length on both legs, take them off and check the two legs match (measuring from the crotch seam, not the waistband).

2. Cut with margin. New length plus 3cm. Chalk a line — our seam allowance habit applies to trousers too.

3. Double fold. 1.5cm up, then 1.5cm again, hiding the raw edge inside. Press it — denim obeys the iron (three dots, steam) far better than it obeys pins.

4. Sew with the right kit. A jeans needle (90/14 or 100/16) — ordinary needles snap or skip on hem-thickness denim. Stitch length up to 3–3.5. Sew close to the fold's top edge, all the way round.

5. The seam-bump trick. Where the side seams cross the hem, the machine meets a small denim mountain. Don't force: walk the machine over it with the handwheel, or level the foot with a folded scrap of denim behind it. That bump is where beginners break needles — now you won't.

The original-hem trick (keeping the faded edge)

Shop jeans have that worn, slightly faded hem edge that new hems lack. To keep it: instead of cutting, fold the excess up INSIDE the leg so the original hem sits exactly at your new length, then stitch in the groove right beside the original hem's seam, through all layers. Trim the excess inside (zigzag the raw edge — or leave it if it's tucked away), press down, and from outside the jeans look untouched. This is the tailor's secret for expensive jeans, and it's genuinely easier than it sounds.

Thread honesty

Regular thread in a matching blue disappears politely. That signature jeans look needs proper topstitch thread in classic gold — thicker, bolder, unmistakably denim. Topstitch thread on top, regular thread in the bobbin, and slow down: topstitching rewards patience over speed.

Twenty minutes, one needle upgrade, and every pair of too-long jeans in the house becomes wearable. The tailor charges £12 for this — the needle costs 60p.