How To: Cuff Jeans

I’ve always cuffed and rolled up my jeans out of necessity, not style. Being under 5 feet, I’ve never actually thought twice about cuffing my skinny jeans because I really have no choice other than to hem them, and that’s not gonna happen every time. I’ve come to terms with the fact that pants that say “ankle pants” are not ankle pants at all for me, and petite / short will never fit right in the waist, and that the only jeans that will hit my ankles are the ones that are meant to be cropped on average people. Lucky for us fun-sized folk, rolling up your jeans is back in style so now is the time to channel your 90s self and get to cuffing.

In preparation for this post, I was going to take a bunch of photos showing how I like to cuff my pants until I realized that practically every single style post on this blog features rolled up pants. So in an effort to save time, I simply pulled a few old posts to show you how I like to cuff my jeans:

The basics: 

Not all cuffs are created equal. It all depends on the style of the jeans, how much material you’re working with, and of course the shoes you’re wearing.

Show a little skin. You want the cuff to hit right above your booties and right at your ankles if you’re wearing flats or pumps.

Do it with confidence. I’ve heard a lot of friends say “I love the way it looks but I feel silly.” I think the key for me is that I really don’t care what it looks like since I’ve been doing it for practical reasons all these years. Honestly, the moment you stop caring whether or not you feel silly is when it starts to look effortless.

Types of cuffs:

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The long single cuff: I do this with jeans that are extremely long.  I fold  one big cuff and make sure the hem of the cuff hits right at my ankles. This is one of the easiest cuffs.
Works well with: long skinny, slender, and straight leg jeans. Boots (especially square), flats, flat sneakers (like Converse), wedges, or pumps. Because this tends to make short legs even shorter, this works really well for long legs. Here’s an example of the single cuff over the boots.

The small / skinny roll: I do this with jeans that are super skinny and when I don’t have much material to work with. Just one -two thin rolls to add a little spice to the outfit.
Works well with: skinny and straight jeans, flats, booties, pumps, wedges, sneakers. Pointy or round shoes.

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The triple roll: This is the middle of the road cuff. I usually stop at 3 rolls and make sure they are even and not too bulky.
Works well with: most all jeans; boyfriend, skinny, and straight. Flats, pointy shoes, round shoes, boots, stacked heels, wedges.

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How do you like to cuff your jeans?
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