Sharing a Sewing Tip on Fixing Waistbands

Here we are statring a new month and I still can't get to my sites at webs. They have deleted them as far as I can tell. I even tried to sign up for a new one and got a glitch (st least that's what they call it) message saying to try again in 15 minutes. 15 Minutes later same thing. They seem to be really messed up.

Ok now that I"ve updated you on that mess here's what this post is really about:

Last summer the local Kmart closed (why can’t somebody run this business right!). I was there going through the racks of clothing marked down to $3, $5, and $7. Not one to pass up a super fantastic bargain I stocked up on t-shirts, turtlenecks (wish I had bought more), jeans, sweats, and even some shoes. With all the shopping points I had I ended up getting half the stuff free.

But there was a problem. Of the 5 pair of jeans I bought 1 pair was my size, 2 were a size big, and 2 were 2 sizes too big. I thought they’d probably shrink so it would be ok and would be great to wear around the house. With the spandex in them they’d be as comfy as sweats. You may wonder why I didn’t get any jeggings/leggings if I wanted something stretchy. I’m just not comfortable wearing them. Even with a long tunic top I feel too exposed so it’s sweats and stretchy jeans/pants for me.

After washing and drying the jeans a few times I found they didn’t shrink at all. The ones that were 2 sizes too big could be pulled up and down without unzipping! I had to wear a belt to keep them up which I hated because I’m not a fan of belts. That’s when I started thinking about adding elastic to the waist. It was such a coincidence that one evening I thought up how I wanted to do it and the next day a sewer I follow on Facebook shared a quick video of just what I had thought up. I thought it was such a great tip I wanted to share it with you. The elastic is added just to the back but you could put it wherever you like. I put Fray Check on the cuts in the waistband. After sewing the elastic in place, I trimmed off the extra elastic, hand sewed the opening closed, then covered it with a piece of seam binding. Ribbon would work too. This would also be great for waistbands on skirts.

Here’s the link to where you can see the video by Beth Huntington :

How Beth fixes a too big waistband


There are other videos, too. She has a lot of great sewing ideas.