Can You Have Jeans Taken Up?

Taking up jeans refers to the process of downsizing the jeans, no matter the side seams, back seams (or crotch seams) or waistband of the pants.

Most people who wear ordinary jeans with some percentage of elastane or spandex will start to feel an obvious amount of sag after a long period of regular use.

Some people with wide hips and chubby thighs will notice an apparent expansion in these areas.

I was born with an unbalanced upper shape with a super wide butt but am only 5ft 2. This means I will always have to get used to sizing up my jeans to make them fit my butt.

But the hem is sort of way too long for me (all the time). That’s why I have gathered for myself more than just a way to shorten the hem of my jeans.

I said most ordinary jeans does not mean that it includes 100% cotton jeans since this material includes shrink every you wash.

As a result, they usually won’t expand during use. That’s why you better find the fitted ones right from the beginning if you don’t want your jeans to fit snugly the more you wear them.

Overall, the more stretchy jeans you wear in the first place, the better your chances of reading this article will be.

Let’s check my solutions to take up your jeans below.

Can you have jeans taken up?

Since the construction of jeans looks pretty much rigid and sturdy with strong seams and thick fabrics, many people might think that you will have a hard time resizing the jeans.

The good news is, you sure can do it. However, the process is not a piece of cake.

First, you must understand the construction of seams and the stitching of jeans. This is because taking up the jeans inevitably involves taking apart the seams, reshaping the edges and then stitching them back together.

If you have no idea how things are going, you better find a local tailor who can get things done perfectly for you.

Here are the most frequent positions that need to be taken up when it comes to jeans and how you can make it happen with tutorial videos.

Check them out!

Jeans are taken up in the back seam

No surprise, we sit for more than 8 hours a day, whether at home or at work or anywhere in the middle of the street.

That’s why the back seams of jeans are somewhere that suffer from the most compression of the body (especially your butt).

This causes this area to often stretch out after a while especially when it comes to highly stretchy jeans.

Therefore, many people (me as well) are struggling to decide whether to go shop for brand new jeans or to find a way to take up these back seams after a few months of regular wear.

Keep in mind that downsizing the back seam is among one of the riskiest tasks.

You will probably need to reshape the back seams and the waistband at the same time. This is because these 2 areas are tied together into a unified block.

You won’t be able to get a smooth result by just downsizing the back seam without dealing with the width of the waistband.

So, if your butt feels way too big while the waistband fits perfectly, you should reconsider whether to take up the back seam of your jeans.

Here is a video tutorial for you:

Jeans are taken up in the hem

This method is all about shortening your jean’s hems which is an essential issue that I have always dealt with over time.

My jeans often show up with pretty long hems reaching the floor. It doesn’t sound elegant at all, I know. But if I fold the hem of my pants up to make them look shorter and fit my leg’s height, this really destroys my style.

So I decided to truncate the hems anyway.

The most common problem with shortening the jean’s hems is finding a way to keep the original hems which is pretty much difficult. If you’re not an expert in this area, you can make ugly crinkles between the original hem and the bottom of the jean’s legs.

If you think you can create new hems after cutting that look exactly like the original hems, I am not sure it’s possible. I guess the manufacturer has special machines to do this.

So, it’s pretty much a heavy-abused task to make it happen. Here’s how you can take the jeans’ hems up at home while still keeping the original hems.

Besides, if your jeans’ hems don’t come with special hems right out of the bag, you can choose the simpler way. You just completely cut out excessive hems.

Keep in mind that you will keep pulling up the cut hems to produce the whole new hems, so don’t trim them down too short. Here’s how you shorten your jeans’ hems with new hems.

Jeans are taken up in the waistband

There is no trick here to narrow the waistband in this article. We have some other good articles for tightening the waistband with tricky tips as well.

But this time, we need to disassemble, trim and sew them together with every part related to the waistband including the crotch seam, belt loops, jeans’ tags and a part of the waistband (often back waistband) as well.

This is a very labor-intensive process. You need to have some good skills in trimming down the stitch without clipping or tearing the jeans’ fabric. You also need to know how far you should undress and how much to cut your waistband.

So, I better recommend going to see a professional tailor. They have the tools, experience and professionalism to ensure the perfect results for you.

If you are confident in your sewing skills, here’s your tutorial video:

Jeans are taken up in the side seam

I don’t see women often meet this issue if they have found something fitted right out of the bag. This problem occurs more often with men and their jeans.

This situation is more common if you order your jeans somewhere on Amazon or eBay and the jean’s fit doesn’t go right as advertised on the site. For example, you are craving a pair of skinny jeans but what you get then regular fit jeans which are pretty much wider in the legs.

You can fall into 3 situations when it comes to taking up the jeans.

• The first one, your jeans are super wide in the lower leg and hem. You can simply mark the space to trim the side seams from the middle of the legs in the hems’ direction to the extent you want.
• Another situation is your jeans are super wide all the way out from the waistband to the hems. You will need to cut down some parts of the entire side seams of the pants. These can be quite complicated as this will involve you needing to trim some part of the side waistband as well to make it fit better.
• The last case is the uncomfortable seams of the inner thighs of the jeans that get you troubled while walking or sitting like it feels too big and saggy. You need to take up the seams here in this case. This is the easiest situation since when you do it, you won’t have to change the structure and position of any other part of the jeans accordingly.

Here’s your tutorial video:

Before you leave…

Taking up jeans is definitely not something I enjoy but necessarily do it since my jeans are always too long for me.

Since the process overall can be quite complicated and you are not confident enough to work things out, you better go meet some local tailors who can help you.

Besides, if your jeans are noticeably degraded and sagging, it’s time for a pair of brand new jeans.