How to Sew a Zipper in the Lower Pant Leg

Zippered side seams at the bottom of jeans are a small way to make your skinny jeans or straight leg pants unique and versatile. Adding a hidden zipper makes it easy to maintain the original look of your jeans while allowing you to unzip the edge, so that your pants can fall over your shoes instead of bunching or so you can fold skinny jeans up into Capri pants. A heavy-duty sewing machine makes the task easier, but it can be done with just a strong needle and thread at home as well.

Things You'll Need

  • Measuring tape
  • Seam ripper
  • Straight pins
  • 2 hidden zippers
  • Needle and thread or sewing machine
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Instructions

    • 1

      Seam rip the outside seam of your jeans from the bottom of the pant leg as high up as you intend your jeans to zip open but no higher than the length of your zipper.

    • 2

      Pin your zipper into the opened seam with the zipper closed so that the edges of the side seams are folded to the inside of the pants with the rough edges hidden. The bottom edge of the zipper should be just below the hem of your jeans.

    • 3

      Pin the end of the zipper that goes past the edge of the hem up to the inside of the jeans so that the edge doesn't show and the folded-up edge is even with the bottom hem.

    • 4

      Sew the bottom edge of the zipper with either a whip stitch or a running stitch. Sew each side of the bottom of the zipper separately.

    • 5

      Sew each side of the zipper to the pants with a running stitch. You may need to unzip the zipper to sew the bottom and rezip it to sew the top so that the zipper pull is out of your way, especially if you are using a sewing machine.

    • 6

      Sew a line with a running stitch across the top edge of the zipper perpendicular to the line of zipping. Test your zipper to ensure that you did not catch any of the teeth in the thread.

    • 7

      Repeat this process with the other leg of the jeans, making sure to measure the length of the first one so that they match.