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If you have lost a little weight, you are probably noticing that your pants are too lose. The rear sags and what should be hanging at your waist instead rest in your hips. Ever time you move you feel like the pants just swim around you…and you think it’s time for a new wardrobe.

Pause. Don’t put that pair in the Goodwill pile. If you like them take a moment to fix them. With just a few sewing skills and about an hours time you can make them fit perfectly again.

You can make these pants smaller!

Slacks or shorts without a double top stitches seam down the center back are the easiest to alter.

I recently had a client who brought me a large number of pants that needed this type of alteration as she had lost a substantial amount of weight.

The most you can alter a pair of pants is about two sizes down: after that the alteration probably wouldn’t look proportional to the original size .

This pair of shorts needs over an inch taken out of the back seam as shown in the image above.

In order to take in from the waist, use a seam ripper to remove the waist band from the center back seam, then you will need to take in an inch from the center back seam and taper it into the orginal back seam as you get closer to the bottom of the crotch seam.

After your new seam is in place use a seam ripper to take out the original seam. You can trim the excess seam allowance down to 5/8″ or just press it flat.

The waistband will also need to be taken in the same amount as the back crotch seam. Then stitch the waistband down again and your pants are ready to wear again.

The following may be some useful tools for this project.

Virtual Sewing Classes

PDF TUTORIALS

While you are learning to alter pants and shorts you might like to learn how to shorten your knit dress as well.