Secondhand Sisters: How To Take In A Waistband

Secondhand Sisters helps you navigate the dos and don’ts of thrifting and upcycling. We’re two sisters — Char and Sophie — who share a love of fashion and the planet. Check out Sophie’s experience shopping secondhand online here.

When shopping for pants, Char often opts for larger sizes or men’s pants because she prefers the baggier fit and the extra length. In this video, she walks us through her process of taking in the waist on a pair of thrifted men’s dress pants to achieve a perfect fit.

How to Take In A Waistband

Difficulty: 3/5

Taking in the waist on pants and shorts is a skill every upcycler should have. Sometimes, you find a gem in the thrift store, but the waist doesn’t fit you! Worry not, you can just take it in yourself. 

This tutorial is a little complicated for beginners, and certain steps vary for different kinds of pants. I would not recommend this tutorial for taking in jeans or carpenter pants. 

What You Need

• Pants
• Safety pins
• Measuring tape
• Coloured pencil or chalk
• Seam ripper
• Pinking shears
• Sewing machine
• Thread.

Directions

1. While wearing the pants, use safety pins to mark how tight you want to take in your pants.
2. With the pants off, measure how much you took the pants in with your pins on each side. Add those measurements together, then divide that number by two. Save this calculation for later. (For example, if you want to take in 2 inches on the left side and 3 inches on the right side, the measurement you’ll want to save is 2 ½ inches.)
3. With a coloured pencil or chalk, mark where the side seam meets the waistband.
4. Using a seam ripper, remove the waistband from the pants a few inches on either side of the side seams. Ensure that the inside of the waistband is no longer stitched or tacked to the inside of the pants, so the whole waistband can be laid flat in that section. 
5. Take the measurement calculation you did in step 2 and divide this number by two again. Use this measurement as your seam allowance from the fold and sew the sides of your waistband, right sides together.
6. With the same measurement as you used in step 5, sew the side seam tighter, slowly blending your stitch line into the hips.
7. Cut away excess fabric using pinking shears.
8. Match your new side seams to the mark you made on your waistband in step 3 and pin the pants and the waistband back together. 
9. Sew the waistband back to the pants, right sides together. 
10. Reattach the inside of your waistband appropriately. This varies depending on the style of the pants, but try your best to follow what the waistband looked like originally.