Hemming pants is something I am good at purely out of necessity. I’m tall enough so that “short” sizes are highwaters, but short enough so “regular” lengths are dragging on the ground *sigh*. First I learned to hem jeans. As long as you have a straight stitch and the right color thread, you’re good to go.

Dress pants are a different matter. Since I don’t have a personal seamstress, and my Mom can only hem my pants for so long, I learned how to do this as well. It’s not perfect, but it is pretty much free, quick, and frankly, the hem is a long way away from the eye.

So here’s how I do it. I put the pants in question on inside out with the shoes I would like to wear them with generally. This is an adorable look. Then I pin the hem up loosely until I get a length I like. Test it out a few times. Sit down, cross your legs, walk around. You don’t want them to drag but too short is also not good, so it’s best to take your time here. I usually put in a few pins to mark the spot and then take them off. From there, I measure the length from the originally hem and iron in a new hem line. At this point, if you’re sure that’s the hem you like, I cut off the excess fabric. Be careful here, you can’t uncut dress pants. I have learned this the hard way.

Leave enough for a fairly large fold on the hem and to fold the raw edge under. Two inches is reasonable. This also leaves some leeway for error. Then iron the raw edge under and pin all the way around. It should look like this:

Now pick a thin needle and a matching thread. I double the thread, but if the pants are lightweight or you really don’t want to see thread, you may want to use a single thread. To sew, put the needle through the edge of the hem and then through the pants. You only want to catch two or three threads here before bring the needle back to the side you’re sewing on (the inside of the pants). The more you catch, the more visible the thread on the other side. From there, I usually catch the loop from the last stitch with the needle. This isn’t necessary but it keeps it looking neat. The key to hemming dress pants is leaving the stitches evenly loose. This will make the stitches even less visible on the other side because it isn’t pulling on the fabric.

And the finished product:

So with a Patriots win and two newly hemmed pairs of pants, I think I’m ready to start another work week.

1. Always wash and dry your cloth as it will be laundered once your project is finished. Then iron it all out. Sometimes you (and be you I mean me) might be tempted to skip this step. Don’t do it. You’ll regret it when you have a puckered up project after one wash.
2. Measure your table. You can adjust the drop (amount hanging off the table) to whatever you like, but I chose 6″, which is pretty standard. This means that I added 6″ to each edge, or 12″ overall. So their 42″ table wants a 54″ x 54″ table cloth. I wanted a 3″ border, so the main fabric would be 48″ when all sewed together.
3. Once you decide on the finished dimensions, you add in for seam allowances. I like a 1/2″ seam allowance so that means adding a full inch to the cut piece (one 1/2″ for each side)
So the actual pieces you cut are as followed:
1- 49″ x 49″ piece main fabric
4- 56″ x 4″ border fabric
1- 55″ x 55″ lining fabric
4. Fold one lining piece and the main fabric in half and iron in a tiny mark showing in the half way point. Line up the fabrics rights sides together, matching the center points, and pin.
Sew down the length with a 1/2″ allowance. Pull the pins out as you go and keep tension on the fabric to keep the layers even. Repeat with the opposite border piece. Press the seams open.
5. Repeat with the opposite border pieces.
4. Now for the mitered corner. Don’t be afraid, seam rippers were invented for a reason. Grab the opposite corners and fold the tablecloth in half on the diagonal. Taking care to match up the seams, iron a crease in and put in a few pins to keep the corner in place when you sew. Using a ruler and a fabric marker, draw a diagonal extending from the crease of the main panel. Pin.
5. Sew along the line you drew, starting at the seam between the border and the main fabric. Once you’re done, flip it over and check it out. It took me a few times to get it just right, but once you see it you’ll know what went wrong. If you’re happy with it, trim the seams to about a 1/2″. Repeat with all four corners.

6. Iron out the whole exterior and make sure you’re completely happy with those corners and that they have produced some rockin’ right angles.
7. Lay your lining right sides together on top of your exterior. Getting it all lined up can be a bit of a trick, but I suggest pinning each corner and then smoothing it out with your hands or a ruler from the center. Once you’re happy with it, pin all the way around.

8. Sew all around, but leaving about a foot of seam on one side unsewn. This way you can pull it inside out. Make sure you turn the corner of the seams on the mitered seam.
9. Clip the corners off as close the corner as possible without clipping the stitches. Trim down the seams to about 1/4″.
10. Turn the whole thing inside out. Now you need something to push the seams out. I prefer my fingers, but there are tools designed for this task, and a butter knife will work just fine. Run your finger/butterknife carefully down the entire seam from the inside, especially on the corners. This will create sharp corners and edges.
11. So now it’s almost done, but there’s about a foot of seam that’s not sewn. What to do? Some people would slip stitch this. Since I’m bad at slip stitching, I chose to topstitch around the edge of the entire tablecloth. To do this I ironed out all the edges, pinned them every so often and took special care to turn in the seam and iron in the open portion. Then I topstitched very close the edge all the way around. And woohoo! Downtown cool kids tablecloth.
I made this ribbon with the scraps from the main fabric, so I could tie it up into a little roll to ship:

Feel free to comment with any questions!