How to Make New Hem on Stretchy Trousers or Active-Wear

Are you afraid to shorten stretchy pants for your family members? Do not be so! In this tutorial I will show you how you can shorten trousers and pants. You will also learn how to make a new hem on stretchy fabrics without any specialty tools.

If you know how to sew, chances are you will be asked to do what most sewists tend to dislike-rehemming and fitting of clothes. And if you have children, you will be doing it more often.

It's hard to get the perfect fit and length of trousers at stores. If you are lucky enough to find them, they will be too tight around the legs or waist. And I do not want my children especially my daughter to wear such tight clothing.  What we do is buy trousers in a bigger size than hers, if the waistband can be tied, only the length of the trousers needs to be shortened then.

How to hem ActiveWear or PE pants/trousers

So when we bought her New PE trousers ( a bit on the looser side) they were too long. As the activewear is made from stretchy fabric, so they are hemmed by a special machine called Cover-stitch Machine. We home-sewists rarely buy it.

It is a sewing machine that is used to hem knit fabrics. Have you noticed the hems of T-shirts and stretchy pajamas? The inner side of the hem is like serger/Overlocked but from the outside, it shows only 2 or 3 parallel stitching lines. 

A cover-stitched hem allows the room to ease in clothing. If you want to replicate this kind of hem with your home sewing machine, most people will suggest you to use Twin Needles - another specialty tool to be bought! *eye-roll*

I would advise against it. First of all, the twin needle is not easy to find in the perfect size that you want everywhere. I broke the first one as I tried to sew with it. I also find it fiddly to work with and hem starts to unravel soon.

So what do we do? How can we achieve that same cover-stitch look from the outside of hem easily on our regular sewing machine?

I will show you how!

Things you will need:

• Trousers that you need to Hem
• Ruler
• Marking Pencil or Tailor's Chalk
• Scissors
• Matching Thread
• Machine Needle Size 75/11
• Sewing Machine
• Wonder-clips or Pins
• Self-Healing Mat (optional)

How to Re-Hem Trousers of Active-Wear

First wear the trousers and fold the extra hem outside. Measure the folded fabric. In my case its 4 inches.

Now subtract 1 inch from that, the result is 3" for cutting.

Lay trousers flat, matching the side seam of trousers with any straight line of cutting mat and leg openings to a straight line.

If you do not have a cutting mat, then just lay them flat and make sure the ruler is parallel to the leg opening.

Draw a line with ruler and pencil on trousers i.e. 3" from the edge.

Cut both leg openings.

Now fold 1" inside and secure with clips.

Time to Sew

Change your machine needle to 75/11.

Set your straight stitch longer. My machine's normal stitch is 2.4, I increased it to 2.8. 

Start sewing from inside of trousers (begin from inside seam), stitch-line should be 3/4 inches away from the edge. Sew the entire hem.

When hemline is finished, don't take it out, move it closer to the edge, half-inch away only. Sew another line parallel to the first one.

Repeat the same process for another leg opening.

Trim thread tails.

Amaze at your marvel! The new hem will look almost like the older hem. It will have a slight stretch to it too.

So easy it was, wasn't it? I am hoping you will find this mini-tutorial helpful. Do let me know in the comments and do not forget to share with your newbie sewist friends. This tutorial is perfect for cotton, cotton-mix and polyester fabrics. You can use the same method to shorten pajama pants for yourself, your spouse and your kids. And you do not need any fancy equipment to hem the stretchy pants.

Happy Sewing,

Rabeea 🧵🏃