Life is {Sew} Daily: How to Hem Pants {Tutorial}

Knowing how to hem pants can save you quite a bit of money in the long run. It's not always cheap to have pants altered, but if you know how to do it yourself you can have it done in no time - without even leaving your house!

A few things to know:

Have a measuring tool handy.
Heat your iron up - you're going to need it.
You'll need a fabric marker or chalk & a straight edge
And thread to match your fabric.

Have your 'subject' try on his pants. You need to see exactly where the pant legs should fall and it's possible one leg could be a tad longer than the other. So, trying them on is the best bet for accuracy. With pants tried on, fold up the current hem to where you want the bottom of the new hem to be. Pin near the fold to hold it in place.

The original measurement from hem edge to seam at the hem is 1", so we'll keep our new hem the same size. You want to fold the raw edge over 1" and then, fold it again another 1" so that there is no raw edge showing that will fray over time. This is why you want to measure 2" from crease toward the old hem.

After the cut is made, fold your hem over as described above. Iron it in place so that the edge is crisp and smooth and won't bunch up when you sew it.