How to Hem Pants by Hand or Machine
Hemming is the gateway alteration: one evening, four tools, and every pair of too-long pants you own becomes wearable. Here's the whole process, plus the honest case for paying someone instead.
Hemming pants is the alteration everyone eventually needs and almost nobody learns, which is strange, because it's genuinely an evening's work with four tools. It's also the perfect first alteration: low stakes (the fabric is already yours, already too long), high payoff (pants that fit), and every technique in it transfers to skirts, sleeves, and curtains. Let's do it properly. I'll also tell you when I hand the job to a tailor instead, because that's part of doing it properly too.
What you need
- Pins or sewing clips, and a fabric tape measure
- Matching thread; lay strands on the fabric and pick the one that disappears, and when torn, go one shade darker
- A hand needle, or a sewing machine with a zigzag or blind-hem stitch
- An iron. Non-negotiable. The iron does half the work in any hem
- Optional but wonderful: a hem gauge, and chalk or a washable marker
Step 1: Find the right length while wearing them
Put the pants on with the shoes you'll wear most. This is the step people skip and regret: a hem that's perfect barefoot is high-water in boots. Fold the extra fabric under until the front of the hem rests where you want it, and pin at center front and both sides. The classic targets: trousers end with a slight "break" (one soft fold) against the shoe, casual pants and jeans just kiss the top of the foot, and anything tapered runs shorter. Take them off, measure the fold-up at your pins, and true it to one consistent number all the way around.
One warning from experience: hem both legs to their own measurement only if you've verified your legs differ; otherwise use one number. Pant legs that "look different" pinned on a body are usually standing-posture illusions.
Step 2: Mark, trim, press
Turn the pants inside out. Measure and chalk your new hemline all the way around each leg. From that line, you need seam allowance: leave 1 to 1.5 inches for trousers, up to 2 inches for jeans and casual cottons (deeper hems hang better and leave room to let them down later). Trim off anything beyond that, cutting through the old hem entirely, and if the fabric frays, zigzag or overcast the raw edge.
Now press the new fold hard, with steam if the fiber allows. A well-pressed crease is the difference between a hem that hangs straight and one that rolls. This is also the moment to try them on one more time. Chalk washes out; scissors don't.
Step 3a: The hand-sewn blind hem (the dress-pants method)
For trousers in wool or anything where stitches shouldn't show, sew a blind catch-stitch: anchor your thread in the hem allowance, then alternate between catching one or two threads of the outer fabric and taking a longer stitch inside the fold, working right to left with the needle pointing left. Every stitch on the outside should be nearly invisible; all the travel happens inside.
Keep the tension relaxed; a blind hem pulled tight dimples the outside of the leg. This takes maybe twenty minutes a leg while watching television, and it is a deeply satisfying twenty minutes.
Step 3b: The machine methods
Straight topstitch: for jeans, chinos, casual cotton like twill or corduroy. Fold, press, and sew a visible line about a quarter inch from the folded edge, using a jeans needle through denim. Go slowly over the bulky side seams or walk the machine over them by hand-cranking; that lump breaks needles.
Machine blind hem: most machines have the stitch (it looks like several straight stitches then one wide zag) and a blind-hem foot. Fold the hem back on itself so only a sliver of the edge peeks out, and the wide stitch bites the garment once per cycle. Practice on a scrap first; the setup fold confuses everyone the first time.
The original-hem jeans trick: to keep that perfectly faded factory edge, fold the excess up on the outside so the original hem sticks out below, stitch right in the groove under the old hem, then fold the extra inside and press. Faded edge preserved, alteration invisible at a glance.
When to pay a professional instead
I hem my own pants and I still hand certain jobs to a pro, because some hems aren't beginner hems:
- Lined trousers and anything tapered or cuffed. The lining and the taper both fight you
- Suit trousers you wear to work. A professional press alone is worth the fee
- Slippery or delicate fabric. satin, charmeuse, chiffon-weight anything
- Twelve pairs at once. Your evening is worth more than the savings
Basic pants hemming typically runs $10–25 at an alterations shop ($20–40 for lined or original-hem work), takes under a week, and a good tailor will pin you properly in the shoes you bring. That is a lot of service for the price of lunch. Most towns have at least one shop where the same hands have hemmed everything for twenty years, and the reviews always give these places away. Our store finder lists alteration and tailoring shops near you alongside the fabric stores, and my alterations price guide covers what everything beyond hems should cost.
What to bring and what to ask
Doing it yourself? Bring home: matching thread (take the pants to the store; memory lies about navy), the right needle for the fabric, and pins. Going to a tailor? Bring: the shoes you'll wear with them and any pair of pants whose length you love, as a reference. Ask: "Can you keep the original hem?" for jeans, "How much are you taking off?" (get the number; you'll want it for next time), and "While I'm here, is anything else worth fixing on these?" A good tailor's answer to that last one has saved more of my wardrobe than any single skill I own.