How to dress with waders
When you put your waders on:
Socks — You will need to have some thick socks for comfort in your bootie or boot. You can find a number of socks to choose from but I like Merino Wool. They seem to be able to keep your feet warm and comfortable.
Here is the rest of the story… you should have a pair that comes up your leg far enough that you wrap your pant leg around the calf and then hold the pant leg in place with your sock top. You do this so that the bottom of the pant does not crush your ankle bone under water pressure. You wrap the pant so that the bulk of the material is placed in the meat of the calf muscle. The sock will hold this in place and your pants will not slide down to your ankle causing serious pain. If you do not do this and your pants rub your ankle, you will have to leave the stream get completely undressed to address the pain. It is painful, believe me.
Wearing pants or shorts or sweat pants is basically determined by the water temperature. I have fished with all three options with all depending on how cold the water is that day. Most of the time I just wear blue jeans. No matter what pant I wear, I ALWAYS wrap them in my sock around my calf muscle.
Waders need to pulled up all the way and strapped with some kind of suspender. You need to be comfortable and not too tight.
Make sure there are studs or felt on the bottom of the waders. You run the risk of slipping all over the place and falling in the water without something on those plastic bottom soles.