DIY Adjustable Kid’s Pants

Kid's Adjustable Waist Pants
DIY Adjustable Kid’s Pants

This little kid’s skinny booty is really handy in a lot of ways. He’s no trouble to lift and carry around since he’s barely over 35 pounds, and he’s so scrawny that he can still sit in a bumbo seat when he needs help sitting up straight at the dinner table. When it doesn’t come in handy? Whenever I have to dress him. If it weren’t for the length he’d still be wearing 18 month old clothes. I’m always chasing after him trying to put the pants back on that he’s dragged off his body. Nothing stays put.

There are a few lines at a few stores that have adjustable elastic bands in them, but that seems to nearly double the price, and sometimes I find something perfect and adorable that I just want him to have. That’s when I need to break out the sewing machine and solve this problem.

 

Cut a piece of fabric 3 inches wide and long enough to fit around the waist of the pants with 1/2″ extra on each side.

Fold it in half and sew all the way down the length.

Turn your tube inside out and iron it flat, with the seam running down the middle of one side.

Tuck the ends inside the tube and iron flat, then pin inside the pants leaving about two inches from the zipper and button. Cut off any extra and tuck the ends into the other side.

Sew all the way around as close to the edge as you can steer.

Repeat on the other side so your tube is sewn to the pants on the top and bottom.

Stitch a button onto the waistband on each side of your tube.

Attach a safety pin onto a piece of elastic and thread it through the space in between the tube and the pants.

If you buy buttonhole elastic, there will already be holes ready to attach to the button you’ve sewed. I just wanted to use elastic I had on hand, so I just cut a slash into the elastic with a pair of scissors.

This technique would be a bit of a pain on a pair of jeans, but those are easier to find with the elastic already in place. This is perfect when you find an adorable T-shirt that comes with matching pants, but your kid isn’t the same size in tops and bottoms. As they grow you can just let out the elastic, and if necessary, just rip off the tube. But I have yet to reach that stage. I might just be sewing these into his pants until he goes off to college.

4 thoughts on “DIY Adjustable Kid’s Pants

  1. Awesome! I might just use this technique between the back belt loops of my own jeans to correct the giant waistband gap I get when pants fit my hips.

  2. Geeat tutorial and much needed since my son is skinny like yours! Thank god for skinny jens nowadays, which still look baggy on him, but at least they now won’t be falling off! Thank you for your genius idea!!

Comments are closed.