Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Altering Wool Pants With a Lining

 Hello Readers. I love to go to thrift stores and clothes swaps. I found these wool trousers at a recent clothes swap. They were vintage and still had their tags. That was a great find. Wool is so warm in the winter, these will be wonderful. 

Before and after.

These pants were way too long. (*Spoiler- I am way too short.) I knew I might have to do some hemming but for vintage clothes... it's worth it. 

I cut the excess length off. That was easy.

You can see some hand sewing on the inside of the hem. That is so the pants do not have a visible hem on the outside. I hate hand sewing. Was there a way to do this hem without using a needle and thread?

I had an idea to do this a different way. It is all made up in my head because I will always try to find a quicker and easier way if I can. To start I cut the lining shorter than the outer wool layer. 

My next step was to use my serger to sew the bottom of the lining to the bottom of the wool layer. 
 
When I straightened out the layers the lining held the end of the wool layer inside the pant leg so the stitching was hidden. I gave it a really good press with my iron. 

The hem is invisible from the outside. I think my idea worked! It was quick and easy too. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.


 









2 comments:

Dana - mommy.in.austin@gmail.com said...

I'm super short too, which is why I was shocked to find that a pair of dark jeans I ordered for work were actually too short! Have ever had to lengthen jeans and have them look vaguely professional? (I don't want ribbon or lace or anything because I'll wear them a lot - I substitute teach). Wondering what you would recommend!

I Can Work With That said...

Hi Dana,
Thanks for the challenging question, I have a couple of ideas.
1. You could probably remove the seam at the bottom of each leg. Let the fabric out and see if the length is good for you. You can leave jeans unhemmed but if that is too casual for work, maybe you could attach navy blue bias tape to the ends. The bias tape would cover the edge and hid the fraying.
2. If you need more length, you could attach a band of coordinating denim to each leg. It could look sort of like a wide cuff at the bottom. If the denim colors match well then the added cuffs would blend in.
I hope that helps.
Chickie