How to make jeans shrink: 10 ways to shrink by size

Sew on the figure

Side seam

This method is suitable for shrinking jeans evenly over their entire length:

Slip on your jeans and baste the basting parallel to the side seams so that it fits properly on you. The basting should run from the top of the jeans to the beginning of the thighs on both legs.
Remove jeans and measure from side seam to basting. Let's take 2 centimeters as an example - this allows jeans to be reduced by exactly one size.
All further steps must be performed with both legs.
From the right side, extend the side seam line on the waistband using a nesting chalk. Mark on both sides of the resulting line the distance from the previous step. Turn the jeans inside out. Extend the side seam line again with chalk.
On both sides of the side seam and its continuation on the belt, mark the small distance that we got in step 2. In our example, this is 2 centimeters. Thus, we get an "extra" strip 4 centimeters wide, running parallel to the side seam.
You should have two parallel lines on either side of the side seam.
Let's move on to unsewing. Turn the jeans right over. You need to rip up a small section of the seam that connects the belt to the rest of the product. We will separate the parts according to the marked width, increasing it a couple of centimeters for convenience. Do the same for the top side of the belt, which connects the front to the inside.
Mark this extension in advance with a crayon
The bottom hem of the leg (if you have one on your jeans) also needs to be ripped open. The most convenient way is to rip it off entirely.

Bottom hem can be unhooked completely for easy handling
Now you need to rip the side shock itself from top to bottom.
Turn the jeans inside out and iron thoroughly at maximum temperature.
At this stage, you should have a straight line for suturing the legs.
Align the edges of the fabric and secure them with pins.
At this stage, we protect ourselves from accidental tissue shifts.
Sew along our drawn line from the very top of the leg to the bottom, without touching the belt. It is best to do this with a machine - manually, the seam will be uneven, and you will spend a lot of time on it.
You can trim the remaining allowances if necessary so that they are 1.0–1.5 cm. Then they need to be overlocked. If you don't have one, use a zigzag seam on a typewriter.
Turn the jeans right over. Go back to our belt markings. It is necessary to cut the tissue along the central line, which, as we remember, is a continuation of the side seam.
You will need the sharpest scissors - the belt is the thickest and strongest part of the jeans
Now you need to grind the belt. To do this, sew in pairs with the front sides inside the belt part. Such details are sewn together.
You should have four separate pieces of fabric that need to be sewn in pairs.
Stitch the resulting two pieces from the top along the front side. Try to fit the sides of the seam into the preexisting seam for aesthetically pleasing jeans.
Usually the distance between the top edge and the seam is about 1 mm, so be extremely careful in this step.
Fold the main piece of jeans inside the waistband through the hole that remains on the bottom side. Simply put, return the belt to the position it was in before you unpicked it. Sew along the lines of the split seam.
Here, as in the previous step, you need to monitor the evenness of the seam so that the jeans turn out beautiful
Fold and stitch the bottom edge of each leg. Make the seam as straight as possible because it will be visible from the outside.

What shouldn't you do while trying to shrink your favorite jeans?

It is quite possible to shrink jeans at home. However, this business should be started with careful preparation, not forgetting the following rules and taboos:

It is forbidden to boil things decorated with rhinestones, appliques, lace. Boiling will ruin them hopelessly.
Stretch jeans will most likely not work. They are not subject to boiling at all: hot water will destroy elastic threads. To change their size, you have to sew a thing.
If you decide to shrink your jeans with a needle and thread, wash them first. After that, they will shrink, and it will become clear how exactly they need to be sutured.
No need to iron your denim pants. This method will not "plant", but will stretch the thing.
It is impossible to sew denim pants at home for those who do not have a sewing machine. For those who do not have the skills of sewing at all, it is better not to risk it, but to take the thing in the atelier.

Few people try to alter jeans at home without the help of a specialist. However, any housewife is quite capable of learning how to cope with such a matter, so you should not be afraid. Anything is possible if you want to and practice a little on trousers that you don't mind ruining.

How to shrink jeans by washing

Surely your jeans have sat down at least once after an unsuccessful wash. If you get down to business wisely, you can use this feature for good and return the shape of an old product. These methods, as mentioned above, are suitable mainly for denim with a low synthetic content (up to 10%). However, a cheap product with low-quality synthetic threads can also shrink from such procedures.

Machine wash

The easiest way to carry out the procedure is in a typewriter:

Empty the drum and put only jeans in it.
Set the maximum water temperature (usually 90 degrees) and the maximum spin speed.
Fill with fabric softener. It will prevent the jeans from becoming overly stiff (oak) after shrinkage.
Washing powder or gel can also be added if desired. It will not prevent the product from shrinking.
Wash your jeans as intensively as possible.
Take out the product and dry it horizontally.

If you don't have a washing machine at hand, use boiling water. You will need a large pair of tweezers for styling your jeans and a saucepan that fits the entire garment:

Boil water in a saucepan.
Place jeans in boiling water using tongs.
Boil them for 20-30 minutes. The process must be monitored at least once every five minutes. Jeans will not be able to burn to the pan, but gurgling water will periodically push them to the surface. Your task is to plunge them back using the tongs.
Drain off the water and wait for the jeans to cool slightly so as not to burn yourself. Be especially careful with metal parts (buttons and fly).
Dry your jeans horizontally.

Why jeans stretch

Denim material is made from strong and thick cotton thread. It is strong to tear, but stretches well. Because of this, with constant stretching of the fabric, jeans lose their original shape. This is especially noticeable on the knees (those very unattractive bubbles) and the belt. The addition of synthetic yarns slightly improves the situation. They are rubberized and therefore easier to return to their original shape, while maintaining elasticity.

These details are of great practical importance. Stretch jeans, which are usually made with a high synthetic content, hardly shrink after a hot wash

The best way to reduce them is to suture them. More natural denim (from 70% cotton or more), on the contrary, shrinks strongly from high temperatures. Therefore, jeans with little or no synthetic fibers can be washed to reduce size.

Check the fabric composition on the tag

There is no single panacea for all cases. But you can still fix this flaw.

Most often, pants are fitted, which include wool.In order to correct the disastrous consequences, you need to try such options for getting out of this situation.

Immerse the damaged product briefly in warm water.
Then remove and allow moisture to drain freely.
Then spread out on a lined, clean cloth on a horizontal surface, for example, on the floor, table. You can use a towel or sheet for these purposes.

In the warm season, clothes are soaked in advance and then put on the body. In this case, the bottom of the legs is pulled back by some kind of suspended load. In this form, the fabric is allowed to dry.
Mix water with hydrogen peroxide and place the damaged item in the resulting solution. After an hour, remove and pull out to the required size.
Soak pants for fifteen minutes and then hand wash without powder. Hang the trousers vertically and pull the legs down. Repeat the last action several times.

With an iron

For other fabrics, you can also use some tweaks to bring your pants back to their original size.

After soaking and wringing, smooth the damp thing with an iron, pulling the fabric while doing so. If it has a steam function, then use it to enhance the effect.

If the pants have shrunk, they can be tidied up with chemicals.

This can be done by soaking the item for half an hour in a mixture of turpentine, ammonia and vodka diluted in water.
You can also use plain baking soda. By dissolving it in water and keeping the damaged trousers in this mixture for twelve hours, you can return the lost length to them.

Types and features of denim fabrics

The need to "fit" jeans arises for many reasons:

A person can suddenly lose weight and, having thrown off a couple of kilograms, notice that the pants have become too large, dangle slightly - and tightening the belt cannot fix the situation.
Denim contains a high percentage of cotton, so it absorbs moisture well and conducts air. This determines the comfort of the product. However, like any other cotton, in the process of wearing, the fabric quickly stretches, and there is a desire to reduce the width of the pants.
It happens that expensive jeans, tried on a hundred times in the store, in fact turned out to be great.

In these situations, you can reduce the product by one size yourself by washing, drying, boiling and other methods of influencing the fabric. If the pants are two or three sizes large, you will have to take up the needle.

The first jeans were released in the middle of the 19th century. Trousers, jackets and shirts made of dense coarse cotton of indole color were used as work clothes. Today, textile workers produce several types of denim, which differ in production technology and dyeing, appearance, methods of care, and price.

Denim is a high quality material made from raw materials collected on plantations in Mexico, Barbados and Zimbabwe. The front side of the fabric is blue, the back side is white. Denim jeans cost several thousand, but the quality justifies the price. These pants fit like a glove, clearly fitting the contours of the figure. They can be washed in water heated to 90 degrees, tumble dry or in the sun - the fabric will only get stronger.
Jean is a cheap, soft cotton denim of low quality, all dyed in one color. Used for sewing budget clothing. The material is difficult to shrink. If the garment is washed in hot water, the fabric will become coarse and shrink a little, but will soon regain its texture and the pants will stretch again. When shrinking, not only the volume will decrease, but also the length of the product.
Stretch is an extremely elastic fabric from which tight-fitting jeans are sewn. The flexibility of the initially coarse denim is given by the lycra fibers that are part of the weft threads. Stretched stretch pants look unaesthetic. To return the product to its original appearance, it is necessary to wash it manually in hot water and dry it in the sun.
Chambray - light thin cotton, from which summer shirts, dresses, tunics are sewn. The density of this type of fabric is half that of classic denim. Things made from Chambri are short-lived, quickly tear and wipe, and rarely live up to the new season. After washing or boiling, chambri pants shrink strongly in length and width.

How to expand a thing in a specific place?

take the pant leg in the area of the inner seam where the length begins from the knee to the lower leg;
pull gently at the seams several times.

This method is not suitable for denim pants that have holes or slits.

Effective recommendations:

Spray the top of the product with warm water

It is important that the tissue is sufficiently moistened for subsequent manipulations. In the place where the front pocket is located, you need to become a foot

Pick up the part where the second pocket is located. Pull the fabric 10-15 times wide.

Initially, jeans stretch well, but we stretch them with each wear. The material becomes less elastic over time and begins to sag in some places, and the pants fall off the waist.

Washed jeans are much nicer to wear. After all, after that they sit down a little, but stretching still occurs over time.

Since not everyone has the opportunity to wash every day, experienced housewives came up with another option for making jeans shrink.

What to do if jeans are stretched:

Take an empty spray bottle. Pour warm water into it.
Spread the pants out on a flat surface and work on those areas that have managed to stretch out during the day.
Dampen the cloth well so that the water starts to drain from this place. Otherwise, the desired result will not be achieved.
Place the product in the dryer and turn on the most powerful drying and spinning mode.

This method is suitable for daily use. You can repeat the procedure several times to shrink the jeans by size.

Delusion

Some housewives advise to moisten the desired area and put the thing on yourself. Try this method and sit in a chair, what happens?

And the following will happen: the material will stretch even worse. This method is not suitable if you are looking for a way to shrink jeans in size.

Reducing jeans with an iron

If a very slight shrinkage of the pants is required, about a size, then there is no need to boil or wash. All you need is an iron and an ironing net (can be replaced with gauze or thin chintz).

Procedure:

The maximum allowed ironing temperature is read on the pants label. Remember.
The jeans are thoroughly moistened with hot water.
Squeeze slightly without twisting.
The iron is set to see point 1.
Cover the jeans with a mesh to prevent shiny stripes.
Try to dry your pants with an iron as soon as possible.

Heat treatment of the fabric takes place, but in a more gentle mode than when boiling.

How to make jeans dry

Even more than hot water, jeans will shrink from aggressive and hot drying. Wash jeans in a washing machine (any mode), wring out at the maximum number of revolutions, and then use one of the methods:

You can dry your jeans with a working central heating battery. If you have a regulator valve, set it to maximum heat. It is best to purchase a special dryer that is attached to a battery. This is the simplest but least effective method. With its help, jeans will not shrink at all, so it is suitable for returning a tight-fitting silhouette to old skinny jeans, which were slightly worn;
Such dryers cost about 50-100 rubles and are sold in hardware stores and departments with fixed prices.
a hair dryer is also a good option. Please note that the device may shut down during drying due to overheating of the motor. This is normal, you need to wait a few minutes for it to cool down and turn it back on.Spread the jeans on a table or on the floor, and press the edges of the legs with books or other heavy objects. On the other hand, insert the hairdryer with the nozzle inside the product, wrap the body tightly with a belt and turn on the hairdryer at maximum power and temperature. If you did everything right, then the jeans will puff. So they need to be kept until they are completely dry;
Such drying will shrink jeans more or less evenly.
it is best if you have a dedicated tumble dryer or add this feature to your washing machine. Everything is simple here - after washing, you need to start the most intensive and aggressive drying mode.
Dryers and washing machines are expensive, but their presence in the house is often justified - at least with their help, you can easily shrink jeans

Drying can also be used to locally reduce jeans, for example, only on the hips or sagging knees. To do this, moisten the problem area with a spray bottle, and then dry using one of the above methods.

Correct drying

In order not to face the problem of how to wash jeans in the future, so that they shrink, you must initially dry them correctly. If you do this in accordance with all the rules, this problem will not arise.

There are three methods of drying, using which the jeans will not stretch, but on the contrary, they will ideally fit the buttocks, hips and waist.

The first method is not to turn it inside out. When drying vertically or horizontally, never turn denim garments inside out. This will prevent shrinkage.

But there is also a minus. If you hang things outside in the sun, be prepared for the fact that over time the material will not be so bright. Therefore, when using this drying method, hang your laundry in the shade.

Method two - use an extra towel. Do not twist the jeans with your hands, squeeze out excess moisture and lay them on a dry towel. Give the desired shape, it is impossible for them to lie in a stretched state.

There are many ways you can shrink jeans by one size. Try to use them, and thus, you will find the most suitable one.

Drying is very important when denim pants shrink. It is she who helps in the end to get a smaller version of your favorite wardrobe item.

There are several options for proper drying at once:

vertical and horizontal (in the second case, it is worth placing a natural fabric under the thing so that it absorbs excess moisture);
using an automatic dryer (jeans that need to be shrunk should be dried at the maximum);
any heater.

In extreme cases, it is allowed to use clothes and a hairdryer for drying. But this is a rather long process and the clothes may dry unevenly.

At what temperature to wash jeans so that they shrink

This method is suitable for natural fabrics, in which cotton predominates, and its amount should be at least 70%.

Such washing will only harm artificial fabrics, they will stretch and lose their appearance.

Do not wash things in this way that are richly decorated with rhinestones, stones and delicate materials such as ruffles. They will become unusable, and, moreover, clog up the machine. As a result, both the trousers and the unit will be damaged.

Jeans made of high-quality and dense denim can be washed periodically, but not often. With regular use of these methods of shrinking things in the washing machine, the product will quickly become unusable.

Washing is a proven method of reducing the size of clothes over the years. Everyone knows that the washed thing is much more difficult to put on and fasten.

Washing helps to relieve stretched jeans at the hips and loose fabric at the knees. But the effect will be short-lived, and after a while the product will stretch again.

In order to increase the effect of washing, you should use hot water.
In terms of effectiveness, hand and machine wash are not the same, since in the washing machine you can increase the temperature to 90, which will cause the fabric to shrink. Due to the high temperatures and high rpm in the washing machine, jeans can be reduced to two sizes. You will not be able to use this hot water for hand washing.

Not only will hot water help you reduce the size of your jeans, but also the correct method of drying after washing. Different methods can be applied.

After the product has been washed and thoroughly wrung out, it should be hung to dry over a heat source, heater or radiator. This will increase the evaporation rate of moisture after washing, which will shrink the fibers and reduce the size of the jeans.
You can dry your jeans by spreading them out on a fabric that absorbs moisture well, such as a terry towel. The fibers will absorb water and the trousers will shrink.
Jeans washed in hot water can be sent to the dryer with a powerful setting. This will significantly "shrink" the fabric.

If you did everything correctly, your jeans will shrink by at least one size.

Advice

It is worth remembering that you cannot make trousers one size smaller only in length or in width - jeans always fit evenly. Therefore, when buying, choose the length to the very heels (as a last resort, they can always be hemmed). Manufacturers advise taking jeans one size smaller, as they will stretch after frequent wear.

Stretch denim pants cannot be reduced, on the contrary, they only stretch over time. These jeans may shrink a little after washing, but they will stretch again during the day.

Not all jeans can be made smaller by washing or special drying. In some cases, you need to take drastic measures - carry trousers to the workshop and reshape them to fit. Do not undertake this work on your own, without sufficient experience: if the jeans are very large, you will have to rip not only the side seams, but also the step seams. Moreover, on an ordinary sewing machine it will not be possible to make a special "denim" seam. In the workshop, you can not only reduce the size of your trousers, but also adjust their cut. Of course, this method is the most reliable.

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Do you know that:

Threads made of gold and silver, which in the old days were used to embroider clothes, are called gimp. To obtain them, the metal wire was pulled for a long time with pliers to the state of the necessary fineness. Hence the expression "pull (breed) gimmick" - "engage in long monotonous work" or "delay the execution of the case."

Features of work

Working with denim requires knowledge of some secrets and nuances.

You need to be able to work with denim

This is primarily about the following points:

Before opening a product made of jeans, be sure to wash it. Washing will soften the fabric and make it much easier to work with.
Use scissors that are extremely well sharpened. And you need to be prepared for the fact that after cutting they are likely to become dull.
Special thick needles must be installed in the sewing machine, which will not dull or break.
It is recommended to use extra strong threads. If you cannot find special threads for denim, you can replace them with polyester or durable cotton.
Especially thick areas should not be sewn using the machine's foot control. It will be easier and safer to sew such thickened areas by turning the wheel slowly by hand.
The seam allowances must be ironed out.
It will be easier to sew jeans with a longer stitch.

Correctly fitted jeans are comfortable to wear

Sewing on jeans, although not the most difficult process, requires certain skills. If someone has minimal or no sewing experience, experimenting is strongly discouraged.It will be much more prudent to seek help from specialists who will quickly and better fit any piece of jeans wardrobe to the desired size.

We alter

If the denim is stretchy or you want to shrink your trousers much without losing color, you will have to suture them. In the absence of sufficient experience in sewing, it is better to contact the atelier: the fabric is thick, the cut is quite complex (with stitching, with cut-in pockets, with loops and a label on the belt, etc.). Reducing jeans on a household machine is a task of medium to high level of complexity.

Sewing on the sides

If the jeans are large along their entire length, then it is better to narrow them at the side seams. In most models, they are not reinforced with finishing stitching (except for a small area next to the pocket). Therefore, it is quite easy to perform such work without disturbing the original appearance of the product. You just have to remove the metal rivets on the pockets (if necessary).

Instructions:

Make a fitting, use pins to outline how wide the jeans should be when finished.
Having taken off the trousers, turn it inside out and in the places fixed with pins, make chalk marks where the machine line will pass. On the belt, mark with chalk the places of its connection with the side seams.
Remove the pins, rip off the side loops, rip up the belt 10 cm to both sides of the side seams, also rip up the finishing line of the bottom of the product (if the jeans are narrow, it is easier to completely remove it, and then make a new one), remove the finishing lines on the side seams (if they are).
Turn the garment inside out and iron the side seams with an iron to mark the new seam lines more accurately.
Using a ruler, draw a line for the new seam along the chalk marks. Then align the side seams of both legs. First, chop them off with pins at the seams, and then along the outlined line of the future line, which should be repeated on the second pant leg along the pin lines.
In the belt, from the previously outlined points of its connection with the side seams, retreat to the left and right the same distance (for example, 2 cm, if you need to sew in by 4 cm), draw the lines along which the belt parts will be sewn, then add 1 cm allowances for the seams and cut off the excess.
Sweep the product along the outlined lines and make a fitting. If necessary, correct the seams and, when the product fits the figure normally, grind them on a typewriter.
Trim the finished seams by cutting the edges by 1.5 cm, then overlock or zigzag the edges.
Place a finishing line on the side seams next to the pockets, hem the bottom of the trousers.
Sew the details of the belt, sew it around the waist, restore the stitching, sew on the loops.

Thus, it turns out, without any special violations in the cut, to alter the product by 2-3 sizes. If there is a greater difference in size, you will need to rip up all the seams and cut out the parts according to the patterns corresponding to the desired size.

How to sew on the middle back seam

If you want to reduce jeans to a size only at the waist, then it is better to do this by stitching them in along the back seam and in the belt. It is necessary to prepare the threads not only in the color of the fabric, but also as similar as possible to restore the finishing line.

Sequence of work:

Fitting, marking with pins along the back seam and waist, how much you want to narrow the pants.
Unscrew the back loop, then the belt 10 cm on both sides of the back seam.
Dissolve the middle seam by 8-15 cm, so that the new line of the back seam smoothly turns into the factory one. The more you need to sew, the longer it will take to open the seam.
In the belt, mark a line with chalk at the junction with the back seam, then mark half of the excess volume from this point in both directions (if you need to remove 4 cm, then 2 cm is deposited on both sides). Draw chalk along the marks of the grinding line of the belt parts, and then make allowances for the seams of 1 cm from them and cut off the excess.
On the pins, mark a new line of the back seam with chalk, make a basting, try on trousers and, if everything is fine, line along this line.
After joining the back seam, cut off the excess, leaving a 1.5 cm allowance and overcast the edge with an overlock or zigzag.
Then finish the seam, sew on the belt and loop.

If it is necessary to significantly reduce the jeans at the waist, then it is better to do this evenly, distributing the extra centimeters also along the side seams, so as not to disturb the cut. Then you have to do the same work with the side seams, but the thing will better fit the figure.

In most cases, it is quite possible to reduce jeans in different ways at home. To do this, you need to choose the right option and follow all the recommendations.

Iron

If the pants are washed, you can use this method. Applying the iron on dirty jeans, a shine will appear, "screaming" that the owner of the thing is a slob.

Reduce with an iron as follows:

First, look carefully at the label on the trousers. It indicates the maximum temperature at which the pants are allowed to be ironed.
Moisten the area requiring shrinkage well with hot water.
Then squeeze out excess moisture. Do it carefully. Try not to twist your pants so as not to stretch them further.
Set the temperature 10 points higher than the temperature indicated on the label.
Cover the pants with gauze and dry the damp area quickly. To prevent the jeans from stretching, do not run the iron in different directions. Move from the seam inward.

In this case, heat treatment of the fabric is carried out. This is almost the same as what happens to the material when boiled, but this method is more gentle and does not need to be processed completely.

Sew on the figure

If you have thread, a sewing machine, and basic sewing skills, you can shrink your jeans with simple stitching. This method is the most effective and gives the most aesthetic result if you follow all the steps carefully and slowly. You can adjust the width of the updated product at any point with millimeter precision.

Side seam

This method is suitable for shrinking jeans evenly over their entire length:

Slip on your jeans and baste the basting parallel to the side seams so that it fits properly on you. The basting should run from the top of the jeans to the beginning of the thighs on both legs.
Remove jeans and measure from side seam to basting. Let's take 2 centimeters as an example - this allows jeans to be reduced by exactly one size.
All further steps must be performed with both legs.
From the right side, extend the side seam line on the waistband using a nesting chalk. Mark on both sides of the resulting line the distance from the previous step. Turn the jeans inside out. Extend the side seam line again with chalk.
On both sides of the side seam and its continuation on the belt, mark the small distance that we got in step 2. In our example, this is 2 centimeters. Thus, we get an "extra" strip 4 centimeters wide, running parallel to the side seam.
You should have two parallel lines on either side of the side seam.
Let's move on to unsewing. Turn the jeans right over. You need to rip up a small section of the seam that connects the belt to the rest of the product. We will separate the parts according to the marked width, increasing it a couple of centimeters for convenience. Do the same for the top side of the belt, which connects the front to the inside.
Mark this extension in advance with a crayon
The bottom hem of the leg (if you have one on your jeans) also needs to be ripped open. The most convenient way is to rip it off entirely.

Bottom hem can be unhooked completely for easy handling
Now you need to rip the side shock itself from top to bottom.
Turn the jeans inside out and iron thoroughly at maximum temperature.
At this stage, you should have a straight line for suturing the legs.
Align the edges of the fabric and secure them with pins.
At this stage, we protect ourselves from accidental tissue shifts.
Sew along our drawn line from the very top of the leg to the bottom, without touching the belt. It is best to do this with a machine - manually, the seam will be uneven, and you will spend a lot of time on it.
You can trim the remaining allowances if necessary so that they are 1.0–1.5 cm. Then they need to be overlocked. If you don't have one, use a zigzag seam on a typewriter.
Turn the jeans right over. Go back to our belt markings. It is necessary to cut the tissue along the central line, which, as we remember, is a continuation of the side seam.
You will need the sharpest scissors - the belt is the thickest and strongest part of the jeans
Now you need to grind the belt. To do this, sew in pairs with the front sides inside the belt part. Such details are sewn together.
You should have four separate pieces of fabric that need to be sewn in pairs.
Stitch the resulting two pieces from the top along the front side. Try to fit the sides of the seam into the preexisting seam for aesthetically pleasing jeans.
Usually the distance between the top edge and the seam is about 1 mm, so be extremely careful in this step.
Fold the main piece of jeans inside the waistband through the hole that remains on the bottom side. Simply put, return the belt to the position it was in before you unpicked it. Sew along the lines of the split seam.
Here, as in the previous step, you need to monitor the evenness of the seam so that the jeans turn out beautiful
Fold and stitch the bottom edge of each leg. Make the seam as straight as possible because it will be visible from the outside.

Practical advice

Thinking about reducing the size of jeans at home, you need to remember that they will fit not only in width, but also in length. Therefore, if you need to reduce the size of the denim pants at the top, it is advisable to use the shrink option with air conditioning. Or initially buy jeans with a stock in length.

It is strictly forbidden to boil or wash clothes made of fabrics with the addition of synthetic fibers at a very high temperature. The size of the jeans will remain the same, since the synthetics will not shrink, but the appearance will deteriorate so much that the trousers will no longer be suitable for wearing.

Stretch jeans should initially fit the legs like a second skin. If in the process of wearing they are stretched or become large after the wearer has lost weight, it is useless to shrink the stretch. No methods of influence can reduce the size of such a product.

Alternative methods of shrinking denim

Reshaping. This radical method will be effective, but only if the work is done well. It is worth taking up work on your own only if you have a certificate of completion of the cutting and sewing courses. In addition, you will need a professional sewing machine, since denim can be very dense.
Fitting to size. Only models made of fine denim can be sewn. But even such samples have dense plexuses, so it is not easy to do the work on your own. In addition, it should be understood that it will not be possible to significantly change the size, otherwise the model will finally lose its appearance, creases will form. In most cases, a fit is performed at the waist.

Washing

The hand wash method with the shrink effect of jeans involves temperature contrast. To do this, while rinsing the product, you need to transfer it several times from a container with very hot water to a container with ice water. Or, if time is running out, soak the jeans for 8-12 hours in very cold water, and then hand wash at the highest possible temperature.

What needs to be done to make jeans shrink when machine washed? Wash at the highest possible temperature followed by an intensive spin. In practice, it looks like this:

Select the wash mode "Intensive" or "For wrinkle-free items".
Set the maximum water heating temperature.
Pour washing powder into a dish. If you wish, you can add a rinse conditioner, thanks to which the denim will not be "wooden" after washing and drying.
Set the maximum spin and dry mode.
Put jeans in the drum, turn on the washing machine.

When the product is washed and dried, it is recommended to leave it for 10 minutes in the drum of the machine. If the shrinkage is insufficient, the procedure will have to be repeated in the same way. Ironing slightly damp jeans is not recommended, as this reduces the shrinkage effect of the fabric.