Perfect pants length means your pants don't get caught on your heel or drag on the ground, which cause them to fray and wear out. They should just BARELY skim the ground when you're standing. When you're walking, they will ride up ever so slightly, preventing them from fraying. They should neither be sweeping the street nor showing the heel of your shoe.

You'll have to have to commit to different lengths for different shoes. Go ahead and hem to 31" if you plan to wear these with heels, but then don't wear them with flats otherwise they'll be too long and get dirty and wear out.

Sarah, I wear wide legged dress pants with heels on a regular basis. I have never had a pair wear out on the hem. As Mayapple said, you don't actually hem the pants to touch the ground. My mother does all my alterations and I actually ask her to measure 1/4 inch from the ground up and that is the point she pins the pants.

Thank you ladies. This advice helps a lot. I guess I didn't know there was a difference between "skimming" the ground when standing still and sweeping the ground/dragging on the ground while walking. I'll hem them to 31" and let my mom pin them first; she always helps with my alterations. I only plan to wear the pants with my black 3" heels. Thanks again!

This link might help you get a visual. Actually, most of the jeans shown are too short, but the wide legs are pretty spot on. See how they're not really dragging on the ground but they still keep the shoe covered? Compare to the boot cut jeans which are about an inch too short.

http://www.zafu.com/roller/pag....._too_short

Nice visual. The first and last sets of jeans are fine (the skinnies with the sandals and the wide legs). The rest are at least an inch too short.

It's best to commit a set of pants to a heel height Sarah. But skinnies will go both ways.

Got it. Thank you for the visual. I can't wait to get them hemmed and have some pants I can wear with heels! I've been stuck in flats for weeks, ever since I learned that all my pants were too short.