How to Take in Jeans

If you've lost weight but cannot bear to part with a favorite pair of jeans, taking them in at the waistline may be an effective solution.
By making some simple darts at the waistline of your jeans, you can make them smaller at the waistline and gradually larger toward the hip area. Darts are simply tucks that are wider on one side and narrower on the other.
Here are instructions for making darts in your jeans. Be sure your sewing machine is capable of handling heavy denim fabric before beginning.

Things You'll Need

• Large safety pins Sewing machine Sewing notions (thread, pins, scissors, etc.) Tape measure Fabric pen

Instructions

How to Take in Jeans

1. Put on your jeans completely zipped up with the inside out. While wearing them inside out, pinch two sections of fabric from the waistband. Adjust the pinches of fabric so that the waistband feels comfortable.

2. Secure these pinches of fabric with the large safety pins.

3. Remove the jeans and measure the amount of fabric within one pinch of fabric within the safety pins. This is the amount necessary to be removed from each dart.

4. Place a mark with the fabric pen on the wrong side of the jeans at the back waistband where each dart will go. Center them to each other along the back waistband. Draw a 3-inch straight line down from the waistline for the center of each dart. Measure from this line out in both directions half of the amount of fabric that needs to be removed by each dart.

5. 

   Draw two diagonal lines from the points made along the waistline down the point that your center line ends. You have just outlined a triangle-shaped dart.

6. Fold the darts along the center line. Pin this fold to secure.

7. Try the jeans on one more time (still wrong side out) to make sure the darts have made an accurate fit.

8. Machine stitch the darts by sewing along the diagonal line. Clip the dart 1/4 inch away from the stitching line. Turn the jeans right side out and try them on again to make sure they fit properly.