Do you have a pair of pants or a skirt that is just too long for you? I rarely have that problem, since I am 5'10", but I have plenty of shorter friends who are always complaining about ruining the bottom of their pants. There is a quick fix to this problem: Hem them up! I made this quick tutorial to show you how easy it is. I used a piece of scrap material I had so it would show up better, but it can be done with any material.


First, fold up the material all the way around, making sure it is the same length all the way around.


Fold it up again and pin, once again making sure it is the same length all the way around, otherwise you'll get an uneven hem. Tip: If you want to shorten them quite a bit, fold up more material. Fold less if you don't want to shorten them very much. If you are planning on shortening them quite a bit, I would cut off some of the extra material so you don't have a bulky hem.


Place underneath the foot of the sewing machine and lower the foot. (Some machines have a plate that can be removed to make it easy to sew around smaller things, like a pant leg.) Then sew around the hem, making sure to remove the pins as you go, since running over them can damage your machine. Don't forget to backstitch (sew in reverse) at the beginning and end of the hem, otherwise it will come undone. Be sure to not sew through the front and the back of the pants at the same time, since you will sew the leg hole shut!


Now press the edges with an iron to give your pants a nice clean look. Tip: You can also iron the first and second folds to make it really easy to sew since the material will lay flat.



Turn it over. You have just rescued your drowning feet! - Trisha