So I’m wearing a recently-bought pair of slacks for the first time today. I had the hems taken up a few centimeters, and had assumed they’d just be tucked and sewn.
I just stepped out for lunch, and when I stuck my wallet into my back pocket, what did I find stuffed in there but two thin, crumpled snippets of hem! Like a couple of sad, wrinkly little trouser foreskins.
It was a bewildering discovery.
What could they possibly think I would want with these useless remnants of minor tailoring?
Is it just in case I have post-operative regret and want to have them sewn back on? Am I supposed to scrapbook them?
What does one do with two 3cm strips of hem cloth?
This seems to be standard practice for the alterations industry - I’ve had this happen with several different garments that I put in for alteration at different places.
I think the intent is (or used to be) that you would keep these fabric scraps and if at some future point, you got a small tear or hole to the trouser, the seamstress would be able to patch it more invisibly with the scraps of native cloth than otherwise.
Of course nowadays, people don’t patch clothing so much anyway.
Just checked my other pockets and confirmed that there’s no little packet containing a spare button and scrap of patching cloth that’s sometimes included with business slacks.
So, you’re probably right about the intent.
However, as far as practical uses go, I think Twoflower’s swallow coconut sling is in the lead.
(I will use the other hem to first trap a coconut.)