Sewers/tailors of Metafilter, how do I shorten these pants?

January 3, 2022 11:38 AM

I was gifted a pair of Vuori pants that are more than 4 inches too long for me. Sigh. How do I shorten them so I can wear them?

I am a fairly experienced sewer, have an old (pre-1972) Elna machine that works perfectly, and would forge ahead confidently to shorten jeans or other non-stretchy pants. But I'm not sure how to deal with these pants that are 89% recycled polyester and 11% elastane. These are obviously casual pants so the hemming doesn't need to be perfect, but I'd like it to at least be credible, if you know what I mean. Is Wonder Tape the way to go, or something else?

posted by DrGail to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (6 answers total)

For stretchy fabric you want a stitch that can accommodate stretch. So a narrow zigzag or in this case, if you have it, a blind hem stitch could work well. If your Elna lets you adjust presser foot pressure you might get better results with lighter pressure (since it won't stretch out the fabric as much that way), and especially if it doesn't you could definitely try Wonder Tape or another stabilizer. If you happen to have a walking foot, that could help too. But I'd probably just try a blind hem first without anything on the spare length and see how it comes out. (A practice run would be good anyway to work out the best stitch size.)

If you don't like the look of zigzag or blind hem stitches another approach is to do a straight stitch and actually stretch the fabric a bit as you feed it through. That's what people used to do before zigzag stitches and it can work pretty well, but you'll definitely want to practice. If you have a reinforced (triple) that could help avoid accidentally tearing the stitches when you wear it, but at the price of losing any horizontal stretch there.

Finally, if you've got a twin needle you can use that to get two rows of straight stitches that can stretch (because the bobbin side does a zigzag). Things to watch out for: tunneling between the two rows, and the fact that it's really easy to break a twin needle. So again, it's great you have 4 inches to practice with.

One more thing - if the fabric is knit instead of woven, you'll probably want a stretch/ballpoint/jersey needle. (They're not exactly the same but I don't know which would be best for your fabric.) But if you don't have one at home, I'd probably just give it a first try with what you've got.
posted by trig at 12:08 PM on January 3, 2022

The nice thing about knit fabrics is you don't need to double-fold the hem. You can cut the leg to about 1-3cm longer than you want the hem to be, then fold up that edge and either narrow zig-zag or stretch-stitch (also called lightning stitch), if your machine has that option, around the hem. I have found with some knit fabrics, the hem will get wavy if you just fold it up and hem it, but you can iron on a strip of lightweight knit interfacing to the bottom of the leg, fold that up, and stitch over the bit with the interfacing in it.

And seconding the stretch/ballpoint/jersey needle advice!
posted by phlox at 12:20 PM on January 3, 2022

Twin needle is definitely the way to go with that kind of fabric. I sew almost nothing but stretchy fabrics like that and I hem everything with a twin needle.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:20 PM on January 3, 2022

Do you have a Nordstrom’s near you? They offer free tailoring on items sold there. Let them know that you received the joggers as a gift and you’d like them altered
posted by raccoon409 at 12:44 PM on January 3, 2022 [3 favorites]

You can definitely hem that with a twin needle but if that is too much trouble - the hem is not going to be a point of major stretch in those pants. I could make all kinds of recommendations about what to do to do it *properly* but quite honestly, I would carefully cut off enough so that you have about 1/2" left to do a hem, and I'd turn it under twice and run a straight stitch all the way around. I've been sewing for at least 15 years, and if these had a fitted/cuffed ankle I'd give you more complicated advice, but in this case, I don't see any point personally.
posted by Medieval Maven at 1:02 PM on January 3, 2022 [2 favorites]

Agreeing with Medieval Maven - and if a straight stitch isn't stretchy enough the worst case scenario is the thread breaks, the hem falls down, and you have to do it over (probably switching to a double needle or a zigzag at that point).
posted by mskyle at 2:32 PM on January 3, 2022