Have you ever been seshing a sick 4ft flatbox at your local hill, trying to straight it like all of the pros, when you step out of your FKS bindings and *gasp* cut your 4xl Saga pants with your ski? Don't worry, it's happened to the best of us, and I've got just the solution for you! Using revolutionary new technologies, you can now do ski pant cuff reinforcement- for yourself!
This is the idea were getting at- reinforced cuffs that won't be sliced by your edges when you step out of your bindings.
The first thing you'll want to do is pick up some heavy-duty fabric material, Ideally Kevlar or some other heavy-weight, waterproof stuff. I picked this up at Jo-Ann's Fabrics for 10 or 15 bucks.
Before you cut the fabric, you should make a template out of any bit of cloth you have lying around. I just used some felt. I just placed the fabric on my pant and cut it to the shape I wanted. Make sure that you leave some fabric at the bottom of your template to wrap around the bottom of the pant so that you can sew it from the inside.
Next, cut your heavy-weight fabric to the template, or slightly larger. You can always cut it down later. I used 2 layers of material for each cuff, so I cut out 4 pieces of material based on the template. Having the material in a double thickness makes it much stronger and more durable.
Now you should attach the Kevlar to the inside of the pant with a needle and thick thread. This is just temporary, to keep it place while you sew. Make sure that you have wrapped the bottom of the material adequately around the bottom/cuff of the pant.
This is the part where it is very helpful to have access to a sewing machine. I used a thicker, more durable thread (also picked up at Jo-Ann's for 4 bucks) to make sure that it would last. Sew the pant and reinforcing material together from the inside of the pant, then take out the thread that was just holding it in place.
Now fold the Kevlar over the pant in to the position in which you will sew it. Just as before, use a thick thread to hold it in place temporarily.
Sew it uppppp. Remove temp thread.
Sewing is now g
Repeat for other leg. Easy-peasy.
Boom. Done. Now you'll no longer cut your 8xl Saga purps when they are rolling around your ankles. As you can see, there is a bit of excess material above the line of thread, I just cut it off.
I have put multiple days on pants with this reinforcement and I have never cut through the material or my snow pants again.
If you have any Qs, hit me up. Clarification, whatever. This is a relatively easy/cheap thing to do that will increase the longevity of your pants greatly.
