Hemming Away ... by Hand

Business for my sewing ministry has picked up. I am becoming quite the expert at hemming pants for men & women who need this done. Because items are often dropped off for me to do with no real measuring of the person, I ask them to drop off something that fits well and I go from there. Recently, I have been hemming 5 pairs of pants for one person. All of them were different lengths and brand new. He brought in a pair of pants that fit him so I measured the inseam from those pants. I did note that the nylon hem from the blind stitch machine (probably a dry cleaners or alteration person at the store) had come out on one leg. I stitched those pants also. When I tried to put in a 3-4 inch hem, the fabric puckered so out came the stitching. I cut all of the pants down and then put in 2 inch hems. I don't know what the standard is for men's dress pants but this gave a smooth finish on the outside with invisible stitching. After determining the finished length and adding for the hem, I cut the fabric and then serged the edge, marked my 2 inch hem and then hand stitched the pants. So far this method is time consuming but it looks good. My DH approves. One of these days, I hope to become more proficient in using my blind hem foot where I can whip these out but I'm not there yet. Oh, one of these days I will be.