Sewing Jeans hems often damage your machine's needle plate when breaking needles.  As Denim is tough to sew, take right now professional seamstress habits and SAVE your machine from costly repairs !

I will show you first HOW a manufactured Jean Hem was made at the factory.  Even using the big commercial machines, the operator will sew only the EDGE of the seam.  This mean less stress to the needle bar and less chance to break a needle.

As you can see, the hem stitch is NOT in the middle, thus avoiding needle breakage.  But making a Jeans hem on a regular machine could be hazardous even doing it this way.  The main problem is the sudden thickness of denim the feeds needs to pull.  Some people are doing this slowly with the hand wheel, other lift up the presser foot (thus releasing the tension discs and causing a bunch of loops underneath), some others starting at FULL SPEED thinking the machine will "jump" over this denim "bump" making a perfect stitch... more than usual, they will break the needle and will hear a "bang", noticing later their machine is out of timing.

A sudden "thickness bump" of material is too much to withstand for any machine.

DO IT THE RIGHT WAY !!!

A professional seamstress will cut some hidden material BEFORE making the hem and sewing it.  This will reduce needle breakage of 75% !

By removing a small square of denim, you will reduce the thickness greatly and avoid needle breakage.  You will be able to make a nice hem and the small square of fabric that was removed will remain invisible.

Making a hem on a pair of Jeans was NEVER so easy!  Thanks to many experimented seamstress who learned through the years and have shared their knowledge with me.

REMEMBER THIS:

• You will STOP breaking needles
• Your needle plate will NEVER be damaged
• You will never put your machine out of timing
• Your Jeans hems will have a professional look

If you've enjoyed this guide your vote would be appreciated :-)

HAPPY SEWING !!

Andre (alcnational)