Too wide waistbands? Make them fit!

Christina here, just wanted to wel­come Janda, the author of the guest post on con­vert­ing a reg­u­lar bra to a nurs­ing bra, to our writ­ing team.

I have a tall tod­dler and she is skinny. When­ever I buy her trousers, I look for long ones first. Then, some­times I am lucky enough to find in some stores the ones with adjustable waist­bands. But unfor­tu­nately not all brands has this. Some brands do incor­po­rate the idea, but the elas­tic is too loose or soft. When I can, I sim­ply pull the elas­tic out and replace it with a bet­ter qual­ity. To make a waist­band adjustable is more than pos­si­ble though. Here’s how:

You will need:

• A pair of trousers
• A piece of 2.5cm wide bias bind­ing*, cot­ton tape** or rib­bon*** the same length as width of trousers waist­band. I used home­made bias binding.
• A piece of elas­tic with but­ton­holes**** the same length as the width of the trousers waist­band – these nor­mally come in about 18mm width and is avail­able from craft stores. If the elas­tic is wider, make sure the rib­bon is at least 5mm wider.
• 2x 1.5cm diam­e­ter but­tons. (flat ones)
• Sewing thread and needle
• Pins
• A large safety pin

How to:

• Stretch the waist­band of the trousers, if it is already elas­ti­cated, over some­thing sturdy. An iron­ing board works well.
• Fold the one end of the rib­bon o/a 5mm over and fold it over again. I always use a dou­ble thread to ensure strength. Sew the rib­bon (o/a) in place so it doesn’t fray later.
• Start pin­ning the rib­bon (o/a) to the inside of the waist­band from about 7cm from the front and around the back until you reach about 7cm from the other end of the waistband.
• Fold the other end of the rib­bon (o/a) 5mm over and fold it over again. Sew this in place. Be care­ful not to sew it to the trousers.
• Sew the one long side of the rib­bon (o/a) to the top of the waist­band with small over­hand stitches. Take care to fin­ish ends securely with at least 4 stitches over each other and that stitches doesn’t show on right side.
• Make sure the rib­bon lay smooth over the waist­band and sew the other long side of the rib­bon to the waist­band. Again, take great care to fin­ish begin­ning and end securely. Remove all pins.
• Sew a but­ton to the waist­band just next to the ribbon’s ends.
• Fold the end of the elas­tic over same as rib­bon and finish.
• Sew this end of elas­tic securely to inside of waist­band about 4cm away from cen­tre front.
• Attach safety pin to other end of elas­tic and push through sleeve made with rib­bon. Let the elas­tic lay loosely and flat in sleeve. Make sure there are no twists in elastic.
• Cut excess elas­tic off about 4cm beyond end of sleeve.
• Fold the end of the elas­tic over same as rib­bon and finish
• Sew this end of elas­tic securely to inside of waist­band closer 4cm away from cen­tre front.
• Sew the elas­tic through the rib­bon to the cen­tre back of the waist­band with a cou­ple of stitches. This keep elas­tic from twisting

It is now pos­si­ble to pull the elas­tic as tight as needed and but­ton in place so the trousers don’t fall down any more.

If you have access to a sewing machine, you could do some of the work with it, but this isn’t a big job and can look less vis­i­ble if done by hand. A nice lit­tle job to do after lit­tle ones go to bed.

* Fab­ric cut on a 45 degree against the straight edges of woven fab­ric. Long edges folded over 5mm and ironed in place
** Woven cot­ton band with self-finished long edges
*** Satin rib­bon – take care that it is soft and not too thick so it inter­fere with the work of the elas­tic
**** Elas­tic with but­ton holes is gen­er­ally avail­able from good craft stores. This can be imi­tated by stretch­ing two lengths of 8mmwide elas­tic next to each other and sewing them together so they don’t over­lap. Sew 3cm and fin­ish well. Leave a gap of 2cm to use as a but­ton hole, then sew together again – fin­ish­ing begin­ning and end securely.

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Tagged as: DIY, Hacks, kids, pants, toddler