I’m pleased with how this project turned out. It was really hard to capture the black on black stitches, but you get the idea. It’s less noticeable than in the photo.
One thing I found helpful while navigating all those dark stitches was to thread a contrasting yarn through them to help me keep things straight. After finishing a row, I just pulled out the contrasting yarn and continued on until finished.
I don’t recommend using a fuzzy yarn like I did. The fibers made quite a mess!
My daughter is growing like a weed, except she’s only growing up, not out. She’s got 4-5T legs and a 3T waist. That means that most of the pants we find that are long enough won’t stay up.
I try to only buy pants with an adjustable waist, but sometimes I come across a great deal or something super cute that I just can’t pass up. I decided to try adding elastic myself, and you know what? It’s super easy!
You can even do this without a sewing machine as long as you don’t mind a little hand stitching.
Materials
button hole elastic
small, sharp pair of scissors
two buttons that fit through your elastic
Fray Check
needle and thread
Step 1
Starting on the right inside of the waist, snip two holes to create a casing for the elastic. Make sure your scissors don’t go through to the other side! Apply Fray Check to the raw edges.
Step 2
Cut a piece of elastic that’s about one inch longer than between your holes. Fold one edge over and sew. This is the edge you’ll be using to adjust the pants.
Step 3
Sew a button in front of the casing you’ve created.
Step 4
Thread the elastic through the waist casing with the finished edge going through the front. You can tuck the unfinished edge into the back.
Step 5
Sew a line of stitches to secure the elastic. See arrow.
Here’s what you’ll see on the outside of the pants.
Repeat on left inside of the waist.
refashion: The only thing worse than sizing for women’s pants is sizing for kids’ clothes. At least with this little trick, I can just make sure pants look long enough when I buy them. It’s nice knowing how easy it is to adjust the waist. Maybe I should try this on my jeans!
In my creative space today is an unfinished tutorial. I was hoping to have it posted this week.
If you follow me on Facebook, you know that was feeling a bit like a mending rock star last week when I figured out how easy it is to add adjustable elastic to kids’ pants.
I took all of the pics—just need to get them in order and write it up. Stay tuned!
In the meantime, head on over to Kirsty’s blog for more creative spaces.