OT- Altering Jeans

[cheley]

Hi...I would like to "tighten up" my jeans at the waistband..without "darts" in the pockets..any good sewing videos out there? Thanks..

[suzeeq]

I need to do that and am experimenting with sewing a 1" wide piece of elastic inside the waistband. Not sure I took it in enough or if it'll work, I haven't worn them yet. Didn't help that the spool thread kept snapping on my even with loose tension. It's an old machine...

[Puddinpop]

Have you ever heard of Threads Gathering Discussions? Someone on there could tell you how to do it. If you don't want to cut through the waistband, you will have to take it off and to me, that's too much of a headache.

[cftwo]

I've only ever had to hem mine (hint: use a heavy duty needle!), but have not tried to put in darts. If you want to avoid darts around the pockets, you'll want to try for the side seams - and the "right" way would be to take the waistband off, pick apart the side seams and re-sew those, and adjust the waistband to make it smaller.

I'm not sure I'd have the confidence to try doing that. Though I'm willing to hem, I figure I pay enough for a pair of jeans that they had better fit in the hips and waist. (And I refuse to buy expensive jeans if I have to hem them - only if it saves money will I hem.)

Good luck.

[suzeeq]

But if you lose weight (yay!) but not enough to justify buying a smaller size, and the jeans aren't worn out, you need to have some way of 'shrinking' them too.