How to stitch and shorten a pair of motorcycle trousers.

What a funny subject. But for many motorcyclists, getting a good fit from their trousers can be a real problem. I found out the hard way, but also found a simple method to shorten them.

I bought a pair of IXS Tobago trousers. What makes them special is that as far as I know they are the only fully protective Jeans-style Cordura trousers on the market. Other motorcycle trousers are not really suitable for casual wearing due to their explicit styling. The only alternative is Kevlar reinforced motorcycle jeans, but they fail to offer the same level of protection that heavy Cordura is giving you. So after checking out a lot of motorcycle jeans, I was happy to find that IXS carries this fully protective 5-pocket jeans model. It has no zipper on the bottom and no connecting zipper for a jacket on the top, so they will be an excellent match to my new mesh summer jacket and citysmart-styled low boots.

The disadvantage of these trousers is that they only come in 1 length. Size medium was a good fit for me around the waist, but the legs are way too long. Also, the protectors in the knees are mounted so low that the top of the protectors jams just under my knee. The protectors are about 10cm too low and the legs of the trousers need to be shortened by 7cm. The protectors can be moved up to 4 cm higher in their pockets, so all that is needed is to make the protector pockets move up by 7cm and shorten the legs by 7cm.

When you turn the trousers inside-out, you see that you can not just cut away 7cm at the bottom. The bottom seam is holding the inner lining and is connected through a mesh to provide ventilation. On top of that, when we need to cut the sleeves that hold the knee armor, the lining will no longer be watertight, so it's time for a creative solution.

Here is what I did:

• remove the protectors and pull the pants inside out

• remove the stitching at the bottom of the legs
• cut away 1cm of the legs at the bottom. The inner and outer leg are now separated
• the inner leg still has the mesh fabric and 1cm of cordura attached to it. This is good. Move it up a bit so you can work on the outer fabric (which is now on the inside since the pants have bene turned inside out)
• create a new seam of 6cm by folding over the cordura. Make sure this is straight.
• pull down the inner sleeve over these 6cm and align the mesh fabric so it is in the same position relative to the new underside of the leg as it was before you started cutting things up (you can check on the other leg)
• but some needle pins through the construction so everything remains in place
• take a sewing needled and make big stitches. Small stitched take too long. I used the technique demonstrated in this video 

• when all is fine down below, you need to move up.  Just above the knee armor pocket you want to fold 3,5cm of fabric onto itself. Just hold the fabric with your fingers and tuck in the 3,5cm all around. Then make sure you create a nice and straight fold all around the leg. The 3,5cm goes up and comes down again, so you evectively pulled the inner fabric the same 7cm higher as you shortened the outer leg.

• now for stitching this tucked-in part you need to pay a little attention: don't stitch the inner fabric to the outer fabric. It will be uncomfortable to wear and you will see creasing on the outside. You have to try to stitch the inner fabric onto itself. The easiest way to do that is by folding the fabric back onto itself at the place where the double layer lays on top of the single layer of inner fabric. when you fold it back there, you have a ridge of 3 layers of fabric that you can hold into your hand sew with an overhand stitch just at the edge. If you don't make the stitched too tight, it will stretch out a bit and the fabric will lay flat again when you undo the fold. Make sure to put in enough needle pins before you start folding and sewing.

And voila, I'm happy with my 5-pocket styled motorcycle jeans, without the saftey worries of the cotton fabric of real jeans. It's a shame not more manufacturers offer this kind of pants and it is definately a shame that they don't come in different length sizes.


Check out the photo set on Flickr to get some detailed pictures.