Pants that eat your feet: how to wear long-lined trousers without destroying the hem

I’m waiting in line at the post office (procrastinating by running errands) when I see a woman in front of me wearing grey, low-rise bootlegged jeans and a black singlet that shows off her midriff. The look catches my eye because it’s the kind of outfit I so clearly remember wearing in the early 2000s. Then, I was too young to pull it off (but she’s in her early 20s and is also cool).

The jeans are loose through the leg and she’s wearing them so long they almost cover her trainers. As she explains what she wants to the post office assistant she hooks her right foot behind her left. Since her heel is raised I can see the bottom of her jeans has actually slipped beneath the sole of her shoe and the hem is starting to fray from being repeatedly stepped on.

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Longer, wider, slouched, flared pants are back in fashion in a way they haven’t been since the early aughts, which means without the right tailoring, hems everywhere are at risk. This week three experts explain how to achieve the look you want without damaging your trousers underfoot.

What length is the right length?

“I feel sick if a trouser length is dragging on the ground because it damages the cloth,” says Emily Nolan. To maximise pants’ versatility, the Melbourne-based tailor recommends getting trousers professionally hemmed to be as long as possible when you’re wearing your flattest shoes. This should cost between $20 to $40.

“I figure that if the trouser looks great with my lowest sole, then when I put on a sneaker or a slight heel or boot they look even cleaner in the leg line,” she says.

Bring your shoes to the tailor

If you are only planning to wear a pair of pants with certain shoes, alterations and customisation specialist Kiaya Garbutt-Daniels tells her clients at Soraya Tailoring in Sydney to consider this ahead of their appointment, then bring those shoes in with them. “It really comes down to planning out what shoes will work with your longer-length trousers and making sure you stick with those.”

Communication is key

Since the current trend is for long trousers that buckle and break over the shoe, if that’s the look you want, it’s important to clearly communicate this to your tailor.

“Try on your trousers at the tailors for them to pin on you and explain verbally or show them a photo of the look you’re after, so that the tailor clearly understands that you want a longer length,” says Garbutt-Daniels. “Make sure you’re happy with the pinned length before taking off the trousers.”

DIY hems

If you’re game to try hemming trousers yourself, Andrea Cheong, an author and sustainable shopping expert, suggests using a blind hem stitch . “It is the most chic and invisible type of hem, and it’s ‘reversible’, in the sense that unless there’s significant bulk, you don’t actually need to cut the fabric,” she says.

A blind hem can be done by hand. It is a technique that uses an uneven stitch length that is very short on the outside of the hem and much longer on the inside, so you barely see the stitches. If you plan on hemming a heavy fabric, such as denim, make sure to use a thimble while you sew because you will need to use a fair bit of force to push the needle through and you don’t want to end up with blood on your jeans.

Start by folding or cuffing the trouser leg to the length you want, then take off the trousers and iron the hem into place. Secure it with pins, thread your needle in a similar colour to the fabric and work a blind stitch around the top of the cuff, keeping a little bit of slack in the thread.

“Our advice would be to watch a tutorial in full before starting anything to see if you feel comfortable with all steps,” says Garbutt-Daniels. She also adds the mantra all sewers (and carpenters) live by: “Measure twice, cut once.”

Another way to hem a trouser, if you’re in a rush, is by using iron-on hemming tape. But this is just a temporary fix that won’t hold for more than a few wears, says Cheong. “It’s tiresome to constantly reattach it, so I definitely still recommend the blind hem method.”

What to do if you have already damaged your pants

“If the hem has been damaged with wear and tear, dancefloor muck or holes, do not throw them out,” says Nolan. “They can be shortened to bring them back to a wearable state.”

This is done by either cutting off the damaged section or hiding it within the folds of a shortened hem. “To strengthen the damaged fabric, we would also add fusing and topstitching to the area to prevent the damage from getting any worse,” says Garbutt-Daniels.