pant waist adjustment

 These are pants whose waist has been taken in. 

The darker pants had to be converted from all-elastic waist into no elastic waist, so I had to take in about 5 cm. The elastic was so old that it totally stretched out - no wonder why the waist was too loose, and pants kept on coming down. 

The lighter coloured one has elastic on the sides, but they are still stretching and going back to pre-stretched length. The waist adjustment was just 2.5 cm take-in. 

I made the adjustment at the centre back. This means the waist band had to be sewn at the centre back, but there is always a belt loop to hide the seam, so it doesn't look strange with the seam at the back. 

Taking in the waist or any circumference is much easier than taking out. Often, ready-made clothes do not have very much seam allowance, which means that there is not much room to play with. I can take out maybe 5 mm at each seam (one centre back seam, two side seams). That totals 1.5 cm. See, taking in 5cm can be done at one seam at the back, but with taking out, I will have to undo three seams and probably take off the waist band all the way. This can lead to more hours of labour.