A perennial problem I have is that I often wear khaki/chino trousers and the hems fray.
Is there any way to repair this?
At one point I took some of these trousers to a tailor with some olive green twill fabric with the idea that he could make green cuffs to replace the frayed hems, but he refused to do it, saying it would look weird.
An ounce of prevention…
Use the same principle as on dress pants made of finer wool: A thin band made of a sturdier material (e.g. polyester) sewn to the inside of the hem, protruding ever so slightly, protects the thinner material from wear and tear. About a millimeter overhang is enough and is invisible.
This protective band gets added after the correct length of the pants has been checked and adjusted as necessary. If the pants are too long, there’s unnecessary strain on the fabric all the time. If the fraying of your pants isn’t too bad, a good tailor should be able to add this kind of band and still hide the existing damage. These bands come in lots of colors, so matching should not be a problem.
If they're fraying because they're too long, the solution is probably to take them up a bit before they fray.
However if they're the perfect length for with shoes, but you often wear them indoors without shoes and fray them by treading on the hems, it's not going to be so easy.
On a few pairs of chinos I've had, the hem is double and generous in size. That would provide just about enough material to remake something - again ideally just before the fabric wears through. But of course a narrow hem is common, as on the jeans I'm wearing now.
