Why Are There Holes in the Crotch of These Men’s Pants

This post may contain affiliate links which means I get commissions for purchases. Sponsored posts will always be clearly disclosed. Privacy Policy

Hello, Home Ec 101!

I’m so glad I found you, considering the poor grade I got in school in the class.  I’ve managed along over the years, honing my sewing skills, cleaning skills and, ahem, well the cooking part still would get a well-deserved C.

Anyway, I need help or suggestions.  My beloved husband was once a professional cyclist (sprinter).  Needless to say, he has huge thighs that used to provide that great bursts of speed around the peloton. Now that he’s older and an IT Guy, he isn’t as fit as he used to be, but his legs didn’t reduce in size.

He wears nice khaki slacks in different weights to work as he never knows if he’ll be working with upper management or in the trenches.  He is wearing little holes that only get larger at the crotch of said pants.

I have taken to ironing on patches in the areas that wear quickest, but it doesn’t really do anything for the outside of the pants.

Are there any suggestions as to how to toughen this area? Are there any tricks or techniques that anyone uses to stay the creation of holes that look good?

Signed,
Crotchety in Crawford

Heather says:

I’m a 6′ tall woman who has a small frame, finding jeans and not spending a ridiculous amount of money is a big challenge, so I can definitely relate.

Off the rack clothing is designed to fit people within a vary narrow range of body types. The trouble is, some of us don’t have off the rack body types.

You have taken the only approach I would recommend with his current pants and obviously it’s not the quality of the fabric or it would only happen with some but not every pair of pants. For future pants,  have him buy pants that fit his thighs with a little bit of room. Take the pants to a tailor and have them take in the waist and taper the legs if the fit of the rest of the leg is too loose. PANTS! Could I have possibly used the word pants any more excessively in this paragraph?

After a lot of research, I found a long discussion thread of cyclists complaining about this exact issue. (The thread has since been removed) This is a pretty common problem for men with your husband’s body type and the consensus is to buy the pants larger and have them tailored, they will last much longer.

I’m sorry there wasn’t a quick, magical solution.

Send your questions to helpme@home-ec101.com.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Sharing is caring!

9 thoughts on “Why Are There Holes in the Crotch of These Men’s Pants”

  1. One of the first things my mother-in-law taught me after she became my mother-in-law was how to deal with my husband’s pants problem. He’s always had heavy thighs, and she dealt with it by reinforcing those areas with patches made of similar material, using a zigzag stitch on her sewing machine. Since my DH always wears black pants, and always the same exact brand/fabric/style, I cut pieces from an older pair to use as patches. My MIL taught me to zigzag around the outside edge, then to zigzag several rows back and forth on the inside area. If you use thread to match, it doesn’t show much on black pants. I know this won’t work for everyone, but it’s worked for us and made his pants last much longer.

    Reply
    • Oh, and the patches go on the inside of the pants, since I didn’t specify that.

      I tried iron-on patches at first, because I really didn’t sew (and had no machine then) but they were a failure. Then my grandma gave me her old Kenmore and I learned how to use it. (I miss that sturdy old machine. The one I got to replace it is dreadful – pieces break off randomly and without provocation)

      Reply
  2. I do something similar to Bobbie, but instead of patches, I use non-woven interfacing, and literally just cover the entire area with stitches using the machine. It seems like no matter how the pants fit, or how much you pay for them, they ALWAYS get holes in the crotch/thighs.

    Reply
  3. I am so glad you posted this question, even if you didn’t have an easy answer (you ALWAYS have such good answers, love it!). I’ll be checking in to see if anybody else weighs in. We have the same problem with my 6’1″ husband’s pants. 🙂

    Reply
  4. This happens ALL THE TIME to my husband’s jeans. I don’t even find out about it til months later when he’s regulated to them “only wear in the house jeans” and I find out he wants me to fix them. And they’re smelly. I finally got annoyed with holes in my clothing and figured out how to mend all of our clothes (there’s a post about it on my blog). Heather, a quick search could not find a post regarding mending on here; it’s a great life skill!

    Reply
    • You’re absolutely right, when I first started the site, Ivy was going to handle the sewing and cleaning and I was going to do the laundry and cooking. (Kind of funny how that sounds like a reasonable division of labor.) When the site became only mine, I added laundry, but you’re right, sewing has been neglected. File it under fallible human. Michelle, the new contributor has the skills to attack that neglected section. Thank goodness as I was dreading it and procrastinating it for that reason. 🙂

      Reply
  5. Ahh…this is my perpetual problem with jeans. Horseback riding and general body type has left my thighs where they tend to wear through jeans very quickly. I’ve tried to work out a way to patch the pants, but it always has been too noticeable. I’ve relegated myself to finding pants that fit and buying several pairs at a time. When one pair wears out, I just swap it with a fresh pair. Between rotating two pairs of jeans at a time, I’ve been able to get about 3 to 5 months out of the two pairs. Le sigh.

    Reply
  6. My husband has the same problem, and we have finally started buying his work/casual pants at Duluth Trading Company – they have pants with a gusset in the crotch area. Brooks Brothers has nicer khakis that are cut larger in the thigh area and they have been good so far for times he won’t be crouching. Also, Banana Republic used to carry a khaki that was cut larger in the thigh, I’m not sure if they still do. You could always take fabric from an old pair and have a tailor put a gusset into a pair that still has some life in it.

    Hope this helps!

    Reply

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.