Okay, if you are a seasoned tailor or seamstress, then this tutorial is not for you. I, on the other hand, don't do much more than straight lines and simple mending when it comes to sewing. I have recently become interested in learning more about sewing, so I will be sharing my new projects as I go. One reason for my renewed excitement about sewing is this little beauty that I picked up from a public surplus auction for under $150.
To start off, I will show you how to do a simple crop on any pair of pants. I chose a pair of yoga pants that I have had for a few years that have always been a little bit too short. Since stretchy knit fabrics are much harder to work with, I would choose something else for your first project. If you still want to crop a stretchy pair of pants, here are some things that made it easier for me: 1) Make sure you don't pull on your fabric while you are sewing, 2) Don't go too fast, 3) A bigger hem is easier to work with.
First step, try the pants on and mark with a pin an inch below where you want them to end up. I wanted mine to hit just below the knee.
Line the seams of the legs up and flatten everything out. Get your ruler and rotary cutter and make the cut.
Then, all you have to do is hem the ends. You can fold it over twice, which prevents fraying, or just once, which works just fine with knits.
Once you do one side, check it against the other leg one more time, just to make sure that you end up with both legs the same length. I ended up doing a really wide hem with two rows of stitching to keep the knit from stretching too much. I have to say I really like how the double stitching turned out.
You can see that I had a little bit of trouble with stretching on the right leg, which meant that I had to do some reworking. I know they're not perfect, but I really love them! These pants are so much better cropped, and I love that I got them the exact length that I want.
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