Taking in Pants at the Waist & Raising a Waistline

Today I’m talking about altering pants! I made both pairs of pants in this post, but you can apply these alterations to store bought pants as well. Why am I having to alter pants I made for myself? Well, we’ll get into that down below, but it’s mostly because of pattern planning problems. Either way, it’s a good opportunity to show how taking in pants at the waist & raising a waistline can help fix some typical pants problems.

Pants Problems

These pants have been hanging out on my sewing rack instead of in my closet! I made both pair with the intent of having more pants for school. Although they are both fully finished, neither pair fits exactly right. The pair on the left are Oceanside pants, pattern from Blank Slate Patterns. I failed to notice these have a lower rise than I need to go over my behind, so the waist needs to be higher. Plus, I neglected to add the front pockets for some reason. Everything’s better with pockets!

I used Simplicity New Look pattern #6544 for the pants on the right. This is the same pattern I modified to make the pants in this post. I did add a pocket to the right side & put the zip on the left side of these pants.

Apparently, I modified my pants a great deal after I sewed them up because the 2nd pair is much too big. So big, in fact, that they will not stay up! And no, I did not lose weight. ; )

Taking in Pants at the Waist

I originally thought I would need to take out both side seams to fix the brown pants, which would require redoing the zipper & pocket. After a test fit, I realized I could just make the darts in the back bigger & take in the crotch seam. These pants have a simple facing at the top, so I removed it to access the darts & seam. I do not recommend doing this on pants that have belt loops. It’s easier to just make a dart through the waistband in that case.

I put the pants on inside out to pin the darts & seam as needed. Below, you can see that the pins are about the same distance from the original seam on both ends of the crotch seam. This measured about 3/4″, so I used my quilting guide bar to help maintain the distance when I re-sewed the seam. Yep, it’s not just for quilting! : D

In this photo, you can see the old crease line & the new crease line for the dart. Once I had everything pinned, I just gave it a good press with the iron to set it in place.

To sew a dart, you just sew along the crease through both sides of the fabric. You should backstitch at the top but not at the point. Leave a long tail & just tie off the ends. This will give you a smoother dart.

I had to keep adjusting this dart to get it to lay right because I didn’t take the time to draw a line. Let’s just say it looked like my behind needed to be wearing a bra, mm-mkay!

I went over the top edge with a serger because it was fraying pretty badly after removing the facing. Then I sewed the facing back on & had to trim most of the serging stitches to cut down the seam.

These pants are really starting to drive me nuts! Anyway, I finally got the facing sewed back down & realized the tops no longer match at the zipper. Ugh!

They do fit now, so sometimes things just have to be good enough! I would say no one will ever know, but y’all know. I think y’all understand my sewing pains though, hee hee! ; P

P. S. I wore these to school today & I love them!

Raising a Waistline

These pants have a simple fold over waistband with elastic & drawstrings. In order to make the waist higher, I had to have a sit down with the seam ripper & take it all out. If you are doing this to store bought pants, be aware that the elastic may be sewn into the waistband. This helps keep the elastic from rolling, but I usually sew mine at the side seams to help keep it in place.

When I made these pants, I inadvertently put the button holes on the inside of the waistband. Not really a big deal because I don’t like tying bows in drawstrings & usually leave them hanging down. The width of the waistband was all I needed to make the waist high enough, so now the button holes will be on the outside. I picked a pretty cotton from my binding stash to make a new casing for the elastic & drawstring.

The top of these needed a pass through the serger as well to tidy things up. After sewing the facing to the top of the pants, press everything up & stitch through the seam & facing. This is called an understitch & will give you a nicer edge when folding the facing to the inside.

Since I’m adding elastic with drawstrings attached to each end, I left an opening in the back to insert everything in. The elastic is really too wide to be pulling it through the button holes.

So, my pants fit now, but the elastic in the back is giving me a bad case of diaper butt! There’s just way too much fabric gathering at my waist & if I want to wear these in public, I will need to take in the sides. Why do simple pants have to become so complicated? Sigh.

Even though I need to make more adjustments to the second pair of pants, I did fix the problems I was originally having. Hopefully y’all found this helpful even if you were only reminded to take good measurements before cutting & sewing. Have a marvelous Monday y’all!

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