Sew Obsessed: Taking in Elastic Pants

My sweet little three-year-old Princess is tiny. It is hard to find pants that fit her. When normal three-year-old are girls are breaking out the 3T clothes, my baby is constantly holding up her 2T pants just to keep them from falling to her ankles. Problem is, if we buy a size smaller than 2T the pants wont be long enough for her. Therefore, Mama has another reason to use her sewing machine.

This is a short tutorial on how to tighten the elastic on the inside waistband. Even if you don't have this issue in your home, I have found it is good to take something apart and put it back together just to be able to understand how it was sewn together in the first place. Not to mention, this is is one step closer to being able to take in, or let out pants - which is a big money saver.

First, take a seam ripper to those stitches where the tag has been sewn to the pants.

Pull that elastic out of the hole that you made. You can see the teal thread where the elastic was sewn together.

Use that trusty seam ripper and undo the stitches holding that elastic together.

Pull the elastic so that it is overlapping quite a bit. I overlapped the elastic a good inch and a half or more. (This will vary depending on how much you need taken in.) Hold the elastic away from the rest of the pants and sew it together on your machine. Take care not to sew the elastic to the pants. The only thing you want to sew in this step is the elastic. I didn't feel the need to use pins to hold it together because my presser foot held the elastic in place once I dropped the foot down.

Tuck the elastic back inside the waistband tube.

This is a good picture showing how much I overlapped the elastic.

Change your thread to a coordinating color. Flip the pants inside out and sew the pants back together as close to the original seam as possible. This should be easy because you have the stitches on either side of your hole to guide you.