How many times have you found the perfect pair of pants fit wise only to be discouraged because you realize that they are way too long? Well that should never deter you from buying those pants and if you know how to hem a pair of pants, it won’t. Learning how to hem pants gives you a distinct advantage every time you go shopping for clothes because you never have to worry about the length of pants and can instead focus on the actual fit of the pants. The best part is it is not as hard as you might think.

Learning to hem opens up a whole new world of options for you when it comes to fashion. Here are the steps to hemming a pair of pants:

1. Remove existing hem: If there is an existing hem then you will want to remove the threads and then iron where the old hem was to remove the creases.
2. Mark the new hem: Try on the pants with a pair of shoes that you will likely be wearing with the pants and then use tailor’s chalk to mark where you will want the new hem to be. Do this evenly on each side and then pin the new hem in place.
3. Make hem creases: Once the new hem is pinned in place you will iron once again but this time to create a crease where the new hem will reside. After ironing, try on the pants again and be sure that you will be pleased with the fit because the next step requires cutting to take place and there is no turning back after that.
4. Trim the fat: Trim all the excess material away using scissors and stay as straight as possible to achieve an even cut. You will want to leave a hem allowance of about one to two inches for dress pants and one inch for a top stitched hem.
5. Define new creases: Now using a press cloth to avoid hurting the fabric, press the hem lines in good with your iron.
6. Sew the new hem: In this step you will want to try to mimic the original hem. If the fabric is really bulky you can use seem tape to help you with the material. Once you know where you will be sewing use a sewing machine or break out the thread and needle and go to town.
7. Press one more time: After sewing the hem into place give the hem one last pressing with the iron and you should be all set.

The entire process should take you about an hour but realize when you first set out to do this it may be just a bit longer than that. But once you get the process down you will never again have to put those cute pants back on the rack simply because they are too long. While there may be many reasons not to buy a pair of pants, the length being too long should never be one of them.