How to replace an elastic waist band
When my mom found out I was pregnant, she went digging into hidden family history boxes. You know, like the ones in the movies, where they wipe away a thick layer of dust before they open them, ready for a trip down memory lane. At least, that’s how I picture how it happened. Up she came, with some teeny tiny baby clothes my brother and I used to wear.
I fell in love with these clothes immediately. Talk about vintage! Part of the treasure were these cute light blue pants.
Only problem: their elastic waistband had lost the meaning of the word ‘elastic’. But that was a problem that could quickly be solved.
Materials needed
- Elastic
- Seam ripper
- Scissors
- Sewing machine
- Special needle to pull elastics through tunnels or safety pin
How to replace the elastic waistband
- Measure the height of the waistband. You’ll need an elastic that’s a few millimeters smaller than that.
Example: For these pants, the waistband is 1 cm, so I used an elastic that was 8 mm wide. - With your seam ripper, tear up the stitching for about 2 cm.
- Cut the old elastic and remove it.
- Measure how long the new elastic should be. The easiest way to do this is to wrap it around the waist of the person you’re changing it for. Don’t forget to stretch it out as it would be when they wear the garment. Add about 2 cm extra and cut the elastic.
- Pull your elastic through the special needle, or pin your safety pin through it.
- Slide your special needle or safety pin into the opening you made, and gently slide it further through the waistband tunnel.
Careful: Make sure you don’t pull it through completely, keep hold of the end so you will be able to join both ends.
- Fold the ends over each other.
- Stitch the ends with your sewing machine.
- Tug your waistband, so the elastic goes in it completely.
- Close the gap you made, either by hand or with your sewing machine.
There you have it, one very vintage pair of baby pants ready to be worn.
And of course there is a matching shirt (also from that dusty box of memories) and hairdo 🙂
One happy vintage baby, who’ll grow as strong as his uncle.
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Love it!!!
Thank you! I was searching for this and kept coming up with replacing elastic in cloth diapers; all of my diapers are new so I’m not to that stage for those! haha But i have a bunch of pants I get from a baby resale shop and not all the cute ones have great waist bands.
Glad I could help 🙂 Good luck with replacing, it can really bring clothes back to life.