Life's Little Triumphs: I Made A Pair Of Pants Fit Me!

I wonder sometimes how many women are truly well served by the clothing choices available.  The older I get, the more fit issues I have, but the one that has been a constant since my teens has been pants length.  I'm 5'11", with my height concentrated in my legs.  Ideally, I like to wear a 36" inseam.  Sometimes a 35" inseam works out okay, depending on the style of the pants.  But nothing shorter than that works out for me.  I scoff at clothing companies that claim to carry tall sizes, when the longest inseam they actually provide is 32".

Ironically, I should note here that over the years, some of my more petite female friends have told me that they have trouble getting pants that are short enough.  Maybe there is some magical unicorn out there whose legs are exactly the right length who can have as many pairs of pants as she wants.

In the past few years, my pants length problem has been exacerbated by the popularity of cropped pants.  Don't get me wrong, I have no objection whatsoever to other people wearing them.  It's just that when I wear them, I'm reminded of wearing high-waters as a teenager because I couldn't find long enough pants.  That isn't a time in my life that I care to relive.

If a shorter woman wants full-length pants in the middle of the cropped pants craze, presumably she can order cropped pants in the tall size and get what she wants.  But if you already have to buy pants in the tall size, then cropped pants will always truly be cropped pants.

I had been a little cranky because Banana Republic had some nice looking corduroy pants, but they were cropped.  In the tall size, the inseam was 33".  Grrr.  When I zoomed in on the hem, I could see that the hem was wide enough that there was some extra fabric to work with.  But even on sale, they were pricey enough that I didn't want to risk it.  Plus, if I spend enough money on an article of clothing, I kind of expect the length to be correct from the start.

But then, after the holidays, these pants went on a sort of super sale!  When I saw that I could get a pair for around $21, I decided that was inexpensive enough to try playing with the hem.  The pants arrived, they fit well around the waist and hips, and the hem was indeed wide enough to add some length to the pants.  I picked out the hem and washed the pants.  I was pleased that the original crease that had been at the bottom of the pants washed out nicely, as that was something I had been concerned about.  I used bias tape to help me use as little of the corduroy pants as possible in creating a new hem.  And--voila--I ended up with pants that are long enough for me!

Yay for sewing machines!  Yay for pants that aren't quite long enough but have wide hems!  And I'm going to optimistically give a preemptive "yay" to cropped pants going out of style so that I can buy long enough full-length pants again.