Another tutorial to fix your too big pants
I am always fixing my pants. They never fit correctly in the waist, so I have gotten very good at taking in the waist of my pants. I like to use this method with jeans or slacks because they often already have darts in the back of the pants. It makes it much easier to use darts to take in a waistband. This method works the best on pants that already have a dart. This method is bit tricky, it requires being able to sew along a super straight line. With some time, it is doable for a beginner sewer.
Materials
- pair of pants with a too large waist
- matching thread
- scissors
- fabric pen/marker
- ruler
- pins
Tutorial
Put on the pants you want to take in, and measure how much you will need to take them in. Now you will need to do some math. You will be doing two darts and each dart is half the size of the amount you will take out of that dart, or the dart width is 1/4 the amount you need to take the pants in. I need to take this pair of pants in by two inches, so I made each one 1/2″. We’ll get back to this later.
Next, turn your pants inside out and inspect the pockets. If your pockets are like mine, you will need to cut them. My pockets extend from the top of the pocket to the waistband. This is just extra fabric, so I cut it out and zig zag stitched the raw edge to prevent fraying.
Now find the darts already in your pants, and fold along the stitching. Pin it flat and pin all the way up the waistband.
Next, mark your dart width (1/2″ for me) at the top of the waistband and draw a diagonal line down to the top of your pocket.
Sew your dart. Start at the pocket and sew up towards your waistband. This needs to be a super straight line or your pants won’t look very nice. Make sure the point of your dart is very sharp to prevent a weird bubble at the pocket and that there are no wrinkles in your stitches since any mistakes will be very noticeable.
Repeat on the other side.
You’re done! Now you know how to use darts to take in the waistband. Admire your great fitting pants.
If this way won’t work for your pants, try this one
