Today I’ll show you how to add an elastic waistband to shorts or a skirt. Kids come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes and sometimes their clothes just don’t fit quite right. Little miss is shaped like a string bean so I’ve been doing a bit of adjusting to get a better fit…
How to Add an Elastic Waistband
It turns out it’s super easy to add an elastic waistband or adjust the existing elastic to get a perfect fit! We’ve had this little skort for over a year…look how tiny she is! Just playing a bit of peek-a-boo 🙂
Anyway I finally gave up hope of her ever filling it out- she’s 2 1/2 and it’s an 18 mos. but was still falling down. So I decided to fix it up before it became way too short. Much better 🙂
This would also work for adjusting a waistband that is too snug
Waistband Step 1: Unpick about 1″ of stitching along the bottom edge of the waistband. You’ll need to do this at each side seam if you are adding elastic. If you are just adjusting you can do it at one side seam. See the break in the stitching…
Waistband Step 2: If there’s already elastic in there that’s great! Just snug it up a bit and tack it down at the side seam… (Or sew a little extra piece of elastic on if you need a looser fit)
Waistband Step 3: If you need to add elastic to the waistband you’ll want to figure out how much you need first. Measure your kid’s waist and then measure the front half of the skirt/pants/etc. Subtract the front measurement from the waist measurement and then subtract 1-2″. This is your elastic length. Slide the elastic through the waistband with a safety pin, secure at each end, and then sew up the waistband along the stretch you unpicked in step 1.
***If your outfit has a tag in the back you might need to pick out those stitches to slide the elastic through the waistband.
Easy peasy right? Perfect for getting those back to school wardrobes all ready to go!
Other Tutorials
If you enjoyed this tutorial, you might also like some of these:
3 Responses
Thanks for this tip! Saving it for when I need it.
This post comes at the perfect time. My daughter has a pair of shorts that I got at a consignment sale and when I went to put them on her i discovered that the elastic waist was stretched way out of whack. Thanks for posting this, I wondered how I could fix it!
Both my girls are a bit on the skinny size. I have found, that instead of adding elastic, that capri’s are the best. I can buy them in a size smaller than what the girls should be in, so they fit right. And if they fit next year they are long enough to continue to work.
This is a great idea! Thanks for sharing.