My Favorite Sweatpants

We all have them, that favorite pair of sweatpants we like to lounge around the house in. For me it’s these hot pink sweatpants!!!

Well, not sure if you can tell but the waist on these has stretched out because I’ve had them for years and worn them possibly through all three pregnancies. 🙂  Yup, pretty sure the elastic on these pants has been over stretched a few times! But I love the pants and that’s truly the only thing wrong with them. So being the sewer that I am I tossed them on the mending pile and pushed the project aside. Finally, I got the room back in order from the holiday craziness and put these pants at top of to do list! So without further ado I’m going to show you how you can fix the waist in your favorite pair of sweats too!

First I removed the tag as this was sewn over the elastic in the waistband.

Next in the same spot as the tag I cut a small slit in the band I did this on the inside of the pants to expose the existing elastic. However, I discovered that the current elastic was sewn into the waist band on one side. I took a pic (second pic below) so you could see the elastic will come out on one side but the other is definitely stitched into the band.

So rather then pull out all that stitching I chose to leave that elastic there. It’s not hurting anything and won’t interfere with the new one. Plus, this made it easier then it would have been to have to completely re-stitch the waist.

Next you want to decide how much elastic you need. I used a 3/4 no roll elastic I had on hand and just put it straight around my waist and then tightened it some to where I thought it’d be comfortable. You can measure your waist and subtract an inch and that usually works too.

Take that elastic you cut to size put a large safety pin on one end and then pin the other end close to the opening. You want to do this so as you pull the elastic through and you don’t lose your  other end and have to start over again. Then take that safety pinned end and push it into the opening and use the safety pin to help guide the elastic through the casing/opening.

Now once you get it through I recommend you unpin the free end and then use that same safety pin to pin the two ends together over lapping them by about an inch. Take your pants and try them on!!!!! I say this because you never know with the type of fabric or the amount of stretch in the elastic how they will fit. Mine ended up being to big as you can see in the picture above, so I had to cut off a few more inches before sewing. I simply tried them on decided they were to loose and then moved my pin to adjust the elastic and tried again until I liked the fit better. Trust me it was worth the time because you don’t want to do the next steps and find out they aren’t the way you want them and have to undo the hard work. Adjusting the safety pin is much easier to do!

Next, take your pants over to the sewing machine and stitch that elastic together! I like to make a square and then an x or a diagonal line threw the square. Just stitch it together where you feel comfortable it won’t come apart while wearing.

Once that’s done you let the elastic sit flat inside the waistband again and your going to want to stitch it back closed again. Technically, no one will see this and if it’s a material like knit or fleece that doesn’t fray you could stop and leave it open. For me,  I was worried it would fray so I overlapped one side of the fabric on top of the other and pinned it. Then I went back to my sewing machine and set it up to do a zigzag stitch (pictured below). This helps seal that fabric up and keep everything together nice and neat!

You can see in the images below I didn’t bother trying to match the thread that was on the inside of the pants, I did use my clear thread for the outside that someone may see. The stitching doesn’t look perfect.  Especially over the elastic sometimes the thickness makes my machine mad, but the finished product is what I loved!!!! Now my pants are all nice and fitting my waist again so this momma is a Happy Momma with her favorite pants ready to lounge in!!!

I hope this helped out anyone looking to bring new life back into some well loved pants!!!