Easy Hem For Pajamas

I love sewing but like anything there is a down side and it comes in the form of “Can you hem my pants?” While hemming pants is not a big deal it is not my favorite thing to do even for myself and my family, just ask my husband.  Thanks to this post I hemmed two pair of pajama bottoms for him that had been in my studio for so long he forgot he had them and though I had bought him new ones! That said here is my tutorial for easy hemmed fleece pajama bottoms and this is a great place to start learning to hem your own clothes.

First off wash and dry pants to make sure that if they are going to shrink they have done so before hemming. Put them on and have the person stand on a flat surface, preferably a raised surface. I use my step stool. Then fold the pants under and pin in place when you get them the correct length.

Notice that he is not wearing shoes. These are pajama bottoms so he wanted the length to be correct when barefoot. If they were slacks or jeans he would have worn shoes to get the correct length when pinning. You can pin just one leg or both depending on how sure you are of your measurements.  I am doing one leg because I have done this many times. If I were hemming a non family members pants I would err on the side of caution and pin both pant legs. Now take the pants and carefully turn them inside out so you can see how much fabric is turned under.

These need to be taken up about 4 1/4 inches not including leaving some for the hem. The original hem is 1inch so I am going to cut off 3 ¼ inches from each leg. Now if you have a surger you can surge the raw edge of fabric before turning it under then straight stitch in place like this. 

Since this is fleece it is fine (and faster) to just turn the edge under and stitch using a zig-zag stitch. If you use matching thread its barely visible when finished since the fleece is kinda fuzzy.

 See easy peasy and you have the satisfaction of knowing you hemmed your pants yourself! Give it a try!