Parents Hemming Warm Up Pants - Help!!

[LoveMyGymmie]

My DD has her in house meet on Sunday and I have a problem with her warm up pants. My mother very graciously hemmed her warm up pants and jacket sleeves for me. When she gave them back to me last night, my DD tried them on and it looks like she has on bell bottoms. The hem had to come up almost 4 inches and my mom did it with one tuck. You can also see the stiches and the whole bottom of her pants ( and sleeves) don't lay right now. I am going to have to re-do the hem job myself but my sewing skills are not the best. Are there any BTDT moms out there that can tell me how to fix this before Sunday? They are GK pants that are lined on the inside and regular leo material on the outside.

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[wallinbl]

When I'm too lazy to take my pants to a professional after the hem comes out, I use double sided tape. Easily lasts through a work day, and is fine, so long as I remember not to put it through the wash!

 

[shelovestoflip]

I wouldn't hem them! Do you live where it's cold? (ha, I know, it's cold everywhere these days!) But she can stick them in her boots and they take them off the minute they go in anyway!

My daughter has had the same warm up pants/jacket for the past 3 years. They are finally just about the right length!

If you want to use the double sided tape as mentioned above, that woudl work, too. Just don't leave it in thru the wash!

 

[gymboymom]

I just roll the sleeves and the pants from the waist. That way we definitely get another year out of them. They wear them for such a short time during the meet that always does the trick for us.

 

[Krystan]

Go to a craft or sewing store and get iron on hemming tape (one brand is Stitch Witchery). It's so easy. Like tape, but you iron it on so it won't come off in the wash. It's also MUCH easier to un-do when she grows. And no sewing!

 

[suebee]

What I did with dd's warm ups (way too long also) was to first put extra elastic in the waist to make the waist smaller so that the waist of the warm ups were sitting at/near her actual waist instead of at her hips, which is how they were originally. When they were sitting at her hips, I needed hem 6 inches off, which seemed crazy. After adding the elastic, I only needed to hem about 2.5 inches.

Instead of doing a typical hem like for dress pants, where you try to hide the stitch (because I tried this first, and it didn't look good on the warm up pants), I just folded up the bottoms (only about 1.25 inches up total, as it is doubled) and then sewed around the outside, just under the end of the pant that had been folded up, with my machine. You can see the stitches, but I used the same color thread as the warm ups, and that's how the pants had originally been hemmed. It looked completely fine, and was very easy.

 

[eryes]

I think it's the fact that the pants are lined that it causing them to lay funny after you mom's hem job.

I know from working with lined curtains, your prettiest bet will probably be a bit more complicated. Are the 2 layers sewn together? If they aren't, it's one less step...but you really need to hem the lining and outside independently from each other - so you kinda have to duplicate your efforts. If the lining is sewn to the bottom of the pants, you may need to use a stitch ripper to separate the fabrics before hemming.

Or maybe with a warm iron, the pants don't look that bad.???

Good luck!

 

[LoveMyGymmie]

Thank you all for your responses. I had her try them on again last night and they are not a bad as I originally thought. I think I can live with them the way they are for now. She only wears them for a few minutes each meet anyway.

 

[raenndrops]

If you do decide that they need to be altered, what i do for lined warm ups (which I wish we STILL had) is see how the lining is attached. If it is just at the top and bottom, that is great! All tou have to do is tuck the extra up in between the lining and the outside and do a simple looping stitch (with a very small needle and matching thread color go through inside to outside... and OVER the bottom of the pant so all stitches go inside to outside) around the bottom of the pants. It doesn't have to be super tight and close (in fact a little wider is better). Then, with the pants still upside down, shake the leg so the stuff you tucked in straightens out. ON the SIDE SEAMS, from inside, do a running stitch to hold the material up (this stitch goes inside to outside... outside to inside... inside to outside... and back to inside). If you start at the top of the material (which will be the bottom when they are upside down), 4 stitches per side will be enough.

Good luck.