How to Get the Perfect Fit From Jeans

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Debrah DeMirza, at Deluxe, a resale clothing boutique, in Eugene, Oregon, and today, I'm going to show you how to get a perfect fit for your jeans. What you do first, is start out by making sure you wash and shrink your jeans, the way you would normally launder them, and usually if you don't do that, and cotton, you can get a couple of percent shrinkage. Usually it happens in the waist, and in the length, so what I tell people, is get a pair of jeans that fit well in the waist, because if you start taking in the waist, there is so much bulky fabric. For one thing, it's very uncomfortable on your hips, so the best thing to do, is get a nice fit on the waist, and then you can take in the sides. The next thing you want to make sure of, is if it has metal rivets by the pockets, you make sure this area fits well, too, because you don't want to have to try to sew, over those metal rivets, and most jeans will have a single seam, so you don't have to undo a lot of stitching, in order to take in your pant legs, so what you'll need to do, is get a perfect fit on any of the complicated areas, and then you can narrow the legs if you want to, and what you can do, is look at the jeans, by laying them flat, and seeing where the line is. If you have a pair of bells, they're going to need to be taken in on both sides. If it's just a straight leg, and you want to make it narrower, then you can go ahead and start pinning them on yourself, right side out, or inside out, and when you put them on right side out, just pinch the sides, where you wanted to take them in, and make sure that you've got your seam line at the fold, so what you'll do, is make your pins gently angle in from the natural one of your sewing, and then take them in. I usually pin every couple of inches, once I determine how much I want to take them in, and then what you can do, whether they're inside out, or right side out, is I take, you have to turn them inside out to sew them, and so if I don't know where my line is going to be, I take a piece of chalk, and you can go right over the pins, with that piece of chalk, and it helps to make a nice dark line. You can use contrasting colors, so that when you start, you take the pins out, and you turn them inside out. You can use those lines, by again, pinching them to where that chalk line is, and then you can re-pin on the inside, where that line is, and you can check it, by finding out where your chalk line is, on the outside. Now, if you're going to put them on inside out, and then pin them along your seam, you need to make sure that you have, if you have one leg that's fuller than the other, make sure that you allow for the fullness, on the opposite side, if it's inside out, because once you put them on right side out, it will flip to the other side, and fit differently. Now, when you get to the fold line, and you work all the way down, or even just partially down the leg, depending if you want it just narrow, and then you want to make them into bells, you can do that. You just want to make sure that if you're coming off of the edge of the pant leg, that you do a river stitch, to lock that stitch into place, so it doesn't open up, and that's how you would take in a pair of jeans, to get that perfect fit. Usually, you only need to take in the outside, and if there's a double stitched seam, it's usually on the inside leg, because they usually allow, that you're going to take the seam in, on the outside, so it's simpler than having to undo the double stitching, and that's how you get a perfect fit, on your jeans."