How to Convert Men's Pants to Boys'

Bulky, thick material such as denim, can be cumbersome to work with – especially when compared to the thinner material that is used to make trousers.

The process of converting men’s pants to boys’ is called “cutting down” the pants. The most difficult to sew areas – the pockets, zipper and crotch area – are kept as they are. The resized sections are the easiest trouser parts to sew and the most essential for a good fit: the waistband is cut down to size and elasticized, the leg length is shortened by way of cutting off the bottom of the pant leg, and the hips and legs are narrowed, creating a new outer leg seam.

Things You'll Need

• Men’s pants
• Seam ripper
• Boy’s pants pattern
• Scissors
• Sewing machine or needle and thread
• Straight pins
• 1-inch elastic, 9 inches long
• Safety pin

Instructions

1. Wash and iron the pants. Lower the zipper.

2. Rip out the seams holding the belt loops in place, using the seam ripper. Remove the belt loops. Rip out the seams that hold the waistband in place. Remove the waistband.

3. Rip out the seams along the pants’ inseam and on the outside seams of both legs. Keep the seaming at the crotch.

4. Rip through the seam down the crotch on the backside of the pants and separate it from the front of the pants at the center of the crotch. Lay the back of the pants flat and spread the two legs apart – the pants should look like butterfly wings, connected at the seam at the front of the crotch. Lay the front portion of the pants flat.

5. Place the crotch piece of the boy’s pants pattern over the front crotch of the pants. Adjust the pattern so that the curved interior edge is aligned with the pants’ zipper. Cut the interior of the crotch along the curve of the pattern’s interior edge.

6. Turn the pattern piece like a page in a book, so it’s placed over the crotch area of the opposite leg. Align the pattern with the zipper, and cut along the interior edge of the pants to match the pattern up to the zipper.

7. Place the pattern piece for the back leg over one of the legs of the back portion of the pants. Align the area of the pattern piece where a back pocket should go over the pants’ back pocket. Cut out the back leg around the pattern. Turn the pattern piece like a book page onto the other back leg, align it with the back pocket of the pants, and cut out the leg around the pattern piece.

8. Place the pattern pieces for the waistband over the pants’ waistband, and cut the pants’ waistband to fit.

9. Hem the pants’ front and back sides’ inseams and outer side seams using a zigzag stitch.

10. Sew the back and front of the pants together at the inseam and both outer side seams.

11. Pin the belt loops in place, so that one is on either side of the front of the zipper at the front of the pants, and three are spread evenly across the back. Sew the belt loops to the pants using a basting stitch.

12. Cut the elastic to length of the back section of the waistband. Pin the elastic to the inside bottom of the back portion of the waistband. Fold the waistband over the elastic. Sew one end of the elastic to the interior section of the folded-over waistband, to keep it in place. Secure a safety pin to the other end of the elastic.

13. Sew the waistband to the pants using an edgestitch, stopping at 1 inch before and beginning again 1 inch after reaching the elastic.

14. Pull the elastic all the way through the back section of the waistband, using the safety pin. Pin the elastic in place once the elastic is slightly shorter than the back section of the waistband and forcing the back of the waistband to crumple a bit. Sew the end of the elastic in place in the interior of the waistband. Cut off the excess elastic. Edgestitch the portions of the waistband you’d skipped over before.

15. Pin the tops of the belt loops to the top of the waistband, and sew them in place.

16. Edge finish the bottom of the legs.

17. Put the pants on the boy for whom you're making them. Tuck the bottom of the legs into the legs, until the pants are the proper length. Pin the bottom of the legs in place. Take the pants off the boy, and flip them inside out.

18. Sew the leg hems using a blind stitch. Flip the pants right side out again.

References

• This Mama Makes Stuff; Tutorial: Refashioned Slim Slack for Boys