Quick Alteration

I own a pair of lightweight denim capri style pants that I love to wear. The downside is that that they are quite large at the waist... especially since I lost a lot of weight this past year. I had three options n what to do with them - Take them apart and put them back to gether agin, only smaller; Alter them without completely re-doing them or Use them as fabric for other projects. The first option is way beyond me and the third just made me sad. I really like the way these pants fit in the legs and did not want to give them up. I altered them just enough so that they fit at the waist but not enough that it became a huge sewing project.

Here is what I did:

I slit open the waist band on the inside of the pants about half way between the center front and the side seams. The slit is only on the interior and went the width of the waist band without cutting into the original stitching or through to the outside.

I then took some sport elastic that is about 1.25" wide. I pinned one end at one slit and threaded the rest throught the waist band to the other slit. This was a little tricky as I used a huge safety pin to thread it though the waist band. As it was a tight fit I did sweat a little over it and, in the end, the pin opened up about six inches from the end... when I really began to sweat.

At this point I re-pinned the starting end within the first slit and used a three-step zig-zag stitch to secure it into the waist band. I went over that first end about six times and was surprised that it was almost invisible from the right side. It took a while to make sure that the elastic was flat in the waistband but it finally worked. For the loose end I pinned it as tight as I thought it should be, about four inches shorter that the length of the waistband it was it was inserted into. I did about four try-ons before they fit at the waist without too much fullness in the body of the pant.

I then cut off the excess and zig-zagged the second end within the slit about six times. I contemplated sewing over the elastic for the whole length but that would have meant removing and reattaching the belt loops which seemed like too much trouble for an inexpensive rescue mission.

The whole thing took only about an hour though it seemed like many hours of untwisting elastic and try-ons.

They fit much better now BUT, since I pretty much hate the look of elastic waist pants, I only wear them with my shirt out instead of tucked in. When the weather cools down I will be able to wear them with my shirt tucked in with a sweater to cover the elastisized portion of the waist band.

I'm very happy with the results and so-o-o-o happy that I don't have to move these pants out of my wardrobe. I also see this as a good solution for thrift store finds that are a tad large at the waist but fine elsewhere.

Let me know if you try this. I think it would work for a less drastic makeover, like when you just need to add a little shape at the waist.

PS - no pictures as the pants are in the wash, again. I have worn them a ton of times since I did this and the elastic has not stretched out so this is really a successful alteration. I am now looking at some of my other too big pants to see if any others might benefit from an elastic insertion.