Elasticized Jeans

Do you ever have jeans that are a little too big in the waste but fit you everywhere else? Do you ever get that gap in the back of your jeans when you bend over a little bit? Does the waist of your jeans get stretched out during the day and start to droop?

I have a solution! This is thanks to my friend Chantelle who did this to her jeans and showed me how.  The pair of pants in this tutorial is my third to elasticize and I love it so much!

Basically, all you do is sew a length of 1inch wide elastic into the back of the waist of the pants.  And as long as they aren't WAY too big, you can't even tell they have elastic while you are wearing them.

You start by making vertical cuts in the inside layer only of the waist band. I do mine from one side-back belt loop to the other so that I know it stays even.

On this pair I my elastic was shorter (I'm too lazy to go buy more) so I cut mine closer to the center.

Here it is with the slit cut.

  Measuring out an appropriate length of elastic, I thread it through the newly made tube from one opening to the other using a safety pin.  It is better if you have extra elastic as it is easier to sew if the measurements aren't exact.  Here, you'll see:

Don't forget to match your thread so that  the stitches aren't noticeable on the back of your jeans.  Sew one side with a zig-zag stitch one a very wide stitch being careful to stitch the elastic and both cut ends all together.

Pulling the elastic tight through the pants, pin then sew the other opening closed like this.

Your pants should look something like this:

Now check to make sure that you sewed all cut edges and then pulling the extra elastic tight, trim it off.
If you want those zig-zag lines to be invisible, you need to hide them under your belt loops.  See, you can't even tell while I'm wearing them that they are elastic in the waist!

Arrows point to the zig-zag stitches that hold the elastic in place.

All done!  Enjoy your gap-free, stay-put jeans!