February FNSI - Measure twice...oops!

I had a plan for this month's FNSI - finally get round to hemming my jeans for the first time, put the final borders on the mini pumpkins and then use any time before bed to work on the Hue Shift Afghan.

One jean leg had been pinned to the correct length by my mum so I firmly pressed a crease to indicate the correct length (this is an important point) and then spent a fair time making sure the other leg was the same length and pressed another crease on that leg.

I then carefully lined a ruler up with the crease, double, triple checked it was the pressed crease and not a wrinkle and cut.

You can probably see my major mistake at this point. With a howl I realised I had cut across the crease for the finished length not an inch or so below to allow for the hem.

These are my first pair of Levis, and a reward for losing a chunk of weight, so throwing them in the bin was not top of my list of options.  

After a bit of thinking...

I signed the raw edge to try and prevent fraying and then turned the smallest hem possible.

The second hem was much more conventional...

And the finished effect was ok.

At least until they're washed. Luckily I'd asked my mum to pin them slightly longer so it's not too noticeable (I think) that they're too short.

After all this drama, and not wanting to risk cutting anything else, I moved onto the afghan and licked my wounds.

Not wanting to be a Pollyanna, but I can now see some positives from this:

1. My Janome had no issues sewing the properly rolled hem.

2. I've finally managed to zigzag a fabric edge, previously the machine ate the fabric.

3. I now know how, and how not, to hem trousers.

Hopefully everyone else's FNSI was less dramatic. Pop over to Wendy's Blog to find out.