How to Hem Pants

A tailor charges $15 to $20 a pair and keeps them for a week. Doing it yourself takes about twenty minutes once, and maybe ten every time after that.

Amanda Perna from Good Housekeeping walks through a top-stitch hem on denim, which is the most forgiving type to learn on. You need a sewing machine, pins, tailor's chalk and scissors that actually cut fabric.

Measure on the person, wearing the shoes

This is the step people skip and then redo. Put the pants on with the shoes you will actually wear them with, because a heel and a trainer are two different lengths. Fold the excess under until the hem sits where you want it, then pin.

Where it should sit depends on the cut. Dress trousers want a slight break on the shoe. Jeans usually sit just above the sole. Cropped styles hit above the ankle bone and should be measured to the same point on both legs, not to the same number.

Mark twice, cut once

Turn the pants inside out and mark the finished hemline in chalk. Then mark a second line below it for the seam allowance, usually an inch and a half, which gives you a double fold. Cut along the lower line only.

Measure both legs against each other before cutting. Trouser legs are frequently a few millimetres different from the factory and you will notice once they are on.

Double fold, press, then pin

Fold the raw edge up about three quarters of an inch and press it flat. Fold again to the chalk line and press again. That second fold hides the raw edge completely so nothing frays.

Press before you pin. An iron does more for a straight hem than careful pinning does, because the crease holds the fold while you feed it through the machine.

Stitch length and thread

Match the thread to the existing topstitching, not to the fabric. On jeans that usually means gold or orange, and getting it wrong is the giveaway that a hem was redone. Set the stitch length to about 3mm for denim, shorter for lighter fabrics.

Sew from the inside seam so your start and stop point is hidden, keep the folded edge running against a fixed guide on the machine bed, and backstitch a few stitches at the end.

The trick for keeping the original jean hem

If the pants have a distinctive factory hem you want to keep, do not cut it off. Fold the excess length up on the outside so the original hem sits just above where you want the new length, stitch a new seam right above the old hem's stitching, then trim the excess inside and press the fold down. The original hem ends up at the bottom, wear and all.

If you would rather not sew

Hemming tape bonds with an iron and holds for a while, but it stiffens the fabric and eventually lets go in the wash. Fine for a one-night fix on a rental, not for anything you own. Hand-stitching a blind hem is slower than the machine but nearly invisible, which is what you want on dress trousers.

Related sewing steps

If the machine itself is the unfamiliar part, start with using a sewing machine and threading it. Sewing a straight line is the whole skill this project needs, and sewing a zipper is the natural next repair once hems feel routine.

A hem is a folded edge held down with stitches, by machine or by hand. If the needle work itself is the unfamiliar part, how to sew by hand covers threading, the tailor's knot, the backstitch and how to tie off so it holds.