Hemming and narrowing stretch denim capris

What I did:

Before

My client had a pair of moderately stretchy denim capris that she wanted shortened (from capri length to pedal pusher length). She also wanted the legs narrowed a bit.

Front view of capri jeans with pins at bottom of legs indicating where to hem

Before: if you look closely, you can see the pins marking the shorter length that my client wanted for these jeans.

Closeup of bottom of jeans with pin marking where to hem

Before: closeup

After

This was a simple hemming and narrowing job, but with a twist. The fabric — like many jeans these days — was stretch denim. I would just use a straight stitch for hemming and narrowing traditional, non-stretchy jeans, but for stretchy jeans I have started using a zig-zag stitch. When stretchy fabric stretches, straight stitches tend to break, but zig-zag stitches will stretch as the fabric stretches.

pedal pusher length pants, narrow leg

After: the jeans, now pedal pusher length and slightly narrower in the leg.

Closeup of bottom hem of one leg of the hemmed capris showing zig-zag stiches

After: if you look closely, you can see the zig-zag stitches.

hand holding back bottom of jeans so that inside hem is visible (neat zig-zag stitches, even hem)

After: a view of the hem, pulled back so that you can see the inside.