How to shorten jeans, take in for sway back and more
Repair tear stretch jeans Cut a piece of fabric of similar weight and a stretch behind the tear but instead of zig zag, try sewing back and forward into the grain of the fabric. If you really look at it you will see lines (usually) on an angle. This is the weave of the fabric. It is important to match the thread colour to the colour of the jeans. Secure the piece of fabric behind [...]
Lower waist jeans You can take the band off and lower however explain to the customer that the pockets can not be moved, which means you can only come down so far. The band could be stitched on with a chain stitch in which case it would be easy to unpick, or you may have to unpick each stitch. A quick way to do this is to slice using a razor blade or Stanley knife blade. [...]
Top stitching can stop you from taking in the sides of a garment. But there will be times when you have to unpick the top stitching, take in the sides and re top stitch. If the garment is jeans, don’t despair about getting the cotton color right. A lot of domestic sewing machines do not like the thick denim cotton. If your sewing machine will not sew the thick cotton use two cottons to achieve [...]
Make waist bigger on jeans Make waist bigger jeans. Jeans don’t have darts or pleats to release, but generally a manufacturer will sew stabilizing tape around the top of the jeans. They also can sew stabilizing tape around the top of the band in between the fabric. This means there is absolutely no stretch at all in the band. When you take the band off you and any tape, you will notice that [...]
There are a number of ways to put the original hem back on jeans. It comes down to the thickness of the jean fabric. One technique I use encases the off cut so that it looks almost perfect. For this method you need to unpick the stitching and re stitch afterwards. Sometimes you come across a pair of jeans with a very unusual cotton colour. If you are not able to match the colour, then [...]