Alteration - Men's Waistband  

Fabric:  Vogue Fabrics
Patterns:  The Angela Wolf Pattern Collection

In all the years I ran an alteration business, I found it amazing how different men's waistbands were put together compared to women's.  Now jeans and khaki's are basically the same, the difference falls in dress pants.  Men's dress pant waistbands offer an easy alteration.  If you look underneath the waistband, from the inside of the pant, you will find that the waistband is usually unattached except at the center back, sides and center front.
Steps:

• Try on the pants or have your client try on the pants.
• Pin along the center back seam, pinning in as much as needed to allow the pants to fit at the waist.
• From the inside of the pants, chalk mark along the center back seam where the pins are located.
• Remove pins.
• Rip out the few stitches at the back center waistband, opening up the waistband.
• This should give you a nice long seam to stitch, place pins horizontally along the seam to align the waistband seams.
• Stitch the new seam line - making sure to sew a continuous line into the previous stitch line.  The straighter the seam line the better so you do not end up with puckers or a wavy seam line.
• Rip out the original seam.
• Press the seam allowances open.
• Press the waistband closed.
• Tack the center back edge, closing the waistband. 

If you need to let the waistband out, measure how much room you need to add and stitch a new stitch line in the seam allowance (opposite of the previous steps).  Rip out original stitches and press the seam allowance open, etc.

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Featured sewing machine in this segment:
XR9500 PRW – Project Runway Limited Edition Computerize Sewing Machine