Hello. Today, I will be teaching you how to re-size your pants. Here it is:
First off, you want to make sure that the pair of pants that you are working with is too large for you. (You can re-size your pants if they're too small but then you'd need extra fabric of the same kind. Also, it may not look as well-put-together as one re-sized smaller, rather than larger.)
Here, I have a pair of light, white, nylon sports shorts. The problem that I had with this was that the waist part was too wide (even with the strings tied tight) and therefore, led the sides and the pant leg holes to be wide as well. I was, however, not concerned about the length of it, as it hit about a little longer than mid-thigh.
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| I edited the picture to look more appealing :P I also included a watermark~ |
Okay, so for this DIY, you will need:
- A tape measurer (I used one of those flexible ones, which would be best, since you will be measuring your body. Best if it is measured in inches or centimeters, so that it has small intervals.)
- A pair of scissors (One that will cut through fabric smoothly. I have used a pair of shears and they weren't that bad, so those may work.)
- Chalk (There is special chalk that is made for fabric uses, but I didn't have any, so instead, I used chalkboard chalk.)
- Thread (It would make most sense to find some that are the same colour)
- OPTIONAL: Tweezers (You can use this to assist you when removing threads in order to break apart fabric pieces or when you have committed an error with sewing.)
- OPTIONAL: Sewing Machine (You will need to know some basic sewing techniques, otherwise, you can get assistance or sew by hand.)
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Now, for my diagram~
-opens curtains-
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| Same picture from above but with lines and words :D |
I decided to name the different seams, so that I can distinct them apart from one another. I am not sure that all of them are correctly named, but it did help me from confusing myself. So, as you can see, there are 5 seams that we will be working with:
Waist Length Seam - This is where your pants normally sit on your waist. You will need to measure this length with the tape measurer. Write the measurement down and label it. With these pants in particular, it has an elastic waist band on it. Therefore, it isn't too bad if it is slightly tighter. However, that doesn't mean that the fabric on the pants is that length, as you will see.
Center Seam - This is an important one because you have 2, possibly different, lengths for the front and the back. So, make sure you measure both ends, from just under the waist band, until right in between your legs. Label them "Back Center Seam" and the other "Front Center Seam". TIP: I suggest that you add three or so inches onto both the Front and Back Seams because my pants came out slightly tighter than I preferred.
Side Seam - Now this is where you measure how long you want your pants to be. Measure from just under the waist band right to where you want your pants to end at (same length or shorter than the original). At this stage, you MUST figure out how thick or thin you want your pant leg fold to be. Do you want them at about an inch? A centimeter? Once you figure this out, Triple it(as you will be folding it inwards, twice, for a hem, in order to cover another hem) and add it onto this measurement. Both side seams should be about the same lengths.
Inseam - This is the measurement that is present in between your legs. This one, you have to also add your pant leg fold too. Triple it and add it onto this measurement.
Pant Leg Seam - Go to the point of where you want your pants to end. Measure across your leg. This can be as tight or as loose as you want. I wanted mine to be fairly loose so that I could run in it :D Add about an inch for the hem in the Center Seam.
Now, once you have gotten all this information measured and written down, take a look at the different stitches that are used. You can write this down, but it is not essential unless you want a particular type of stitching. After that, we are headed to cutting.
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I started off by cutting off the pant leg hems. I actually originally hadn't wanted to because the length was perfect, but it later turned out to be much more difficult to take it apart. Soooo, I just cut them off. You will not be needing them once you cut them off because you will be creating new ones.
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| TIP: Don't cut 2 layers of fabric at a time. Cut a hole and put your scissors through it to cut one at a time. |
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| FACT: These pants were XL or L when I found them. I normally wear a medium, and even that is somewhat loose. |
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| FACT: The fabric on the waist band is much wider than the elastic underneath it. This is created so that the fabric is snug and tight on the elastic as well as having enough fabric for if the elastic were to stretch. |
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| The Front Center Seam and Front Inseam are cut. |
Once you've completed that, you will get something like this.
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| FACT: This took me approximately 7 hours to make, which included alot of re-measuring -.- |
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| TIP: Cutting less off is more easily to fix than cutting more off. |
To help you guys out, I have added another picture of the diagram here for your convenience.
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| QUESTION: What do you think about my editing skills? It took me a few hours to get going smoothly with the editing software, which is Paint.Net. I had to get the 3.0 version (first released 5 years ago -.-) because my computer doesn't have an update from Windows to use the latest version. |
Once you have marked all of your measured areas on your pants, you're almost set. However, the problem with this is the elastic waist band. My strategy was to put the waist band that was cut off of the pants, around my waist and pull it until it was nice and snug. Then I predicted that I needed it about 1/9 shorter from that. Therefore, with the power of ratios and fractions, I measured the waist length seam that wasn't shortened yet, divided it by nine and shortened it by that amount. Later on, when my mom was sewing it together, she actually found that the pants waist length seam was wider than the waist band, but she made it work. So, I guess just shorten the waist length seam a bit more, but you can always make it work. I think by doing this though, it creates a more puffy illusion. The sides right under the elastic waist band stick out. Change by your preference.
As for the sewing part, just try to hem the ends nicely on the INSIDES (:P) and adjust it if you find that you've sewed something wrong. And here is the result~
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| This is me xP |
Please leave your comments, questions, and suggestions about this DIY below. It would be very helpful for other readers and I to learn from. As for other commentary, I would like to know how you guys think about my editing, the photos, and what kind of posts you want me to write next. (Realistically though, I do not have a large enough of a fan base to fulfill these questions with answers, but because I have typed those questions, you can tell that I like to think that I do ^.^) and as for the HELLA LOOOOONG post,......yeahh....BYE!
-Melanie
Btw, Happy 5 1/2 months of blogging to me~
This is completely irrelevant, but I like your new background.
ReplyDeletexDDD I really want to create my own background. But for now, that's on hold. How do you like my Favicon (Logo of my blog)? :D
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