How to Hem Track Pants
Although you're usually better off having a professional make extensive clothing alterations, you can make smaller changes yourself. One common at-home alteration is taking up the hem on a pair of pants, such as track pants. Oftentimes, pants fit well in the waist but are a few inches too long in the legs. You can easily fix the discrepancy on your sewing machine, however. You'll need someone to help with measurements, but you'll soon have a pair of track pants that fit properly.
Things You'll Need
- Fabric pencil
- Measuring tape
- Scissors
- Pins
- Iron
- Ironing board
- Thread
- Sewing machine
Instructions
-
-
1
Put on your track pants and have a friend mark one of the legs with a fabric pencil, to show where the bottom of the pants should be. Remove the track pants.
-
2
Lay the pants on a flat surface. Measure the distance between the existing hem and the mark you made earlier. Transfer this measurement to the other leg and make a mark there.
-
-
3
Measure 1 1/2 inches down from your marks and mark this point on both legs, to create hem allowances.
-
4
Cut the legs off at the second mark you made. Discard the bottoms.
-
5
Turn the track pants inside out. Take the cut bottom edge of 1 leg and fold it up 1/2 inch, then pin it in place. Iron the folded edge, removing the pins as you go. Do the same to the other leg bottom.
-
6
Fold up the bottom of each leg another inch, encasing the raw edges, and pin it in place. Iron the folded edge, removing the pins as you go. If necessary, put the pins back into the fold to hold it in place after you have finished ironing.
-
7
Place each leg bottom under the presser foot on your sewing machine and stitch along the upper folded edge. Backstitch to finish. Iron the leg hems flat, then turn the pants right side out again.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Double-check your length marks on the legs, as they must be identical.
