Jeans too big? Here’s a quick and easy way I altered my favorite pair of jeans so I could wear them again. 

The Jeans…

I had these Lucky Brand “Sweet N Straight” jeans sitting in my “to Alter” pile for a while. Finally, I decided I was going to make them fit me again. It was easier than I thought it would be and I’m so glad I did it.

First things First…

First I gathered supplies:

• Tailors chalk
• French curve ruler
• Really sharp fabric scissors
• ½  inch elastic
• Top Stitch denim thread
• Denim sewing machine needles
• Seam ripper

How much needs Adjusted?

I tried them on just to see how much I would need to adjust them. I decided the best plan of action would be to remove some width from the center back.

To remve the excess fabric, I needed to open the seams at the center back and the top of the waistband. I did that with a brand new, sharp seam ripper I had just purchased from Joann.

Remove Excess Fabric…

Once I had the seams opened up I used tailor’s chalk and a french curve ruler to draw where to remove the fabric. Then removed the fabric from the center back with some really sharp fiscar fabric scissors. You can see that once that fabric was removed I needed to make the waistband smaller too. But first I needed to sew the center back together and remove the back belt loops.

Match the top Stitch Thread…

Once I had it sewed back together and topstitched with thread that matched the original thread, I pinched the waistband at the center back to see how much I should remove. It was about 2 inches that needed to come off the waistband. So I removed that and then made a seam in the center back of the waistband.

 

One More Thing…

I did one more thing before I reattached the waistband at the back. To make extra sure the pants would fit me well around the waist I added some ½ inch elastic through it. And secured it with a vertical stitch on the waistband. Then I sewed the waistband and belt loops back on 

Much Better!

These fit so much better now! Here’s a little comparison of the jeans before and after.

Can’t wait to wear them all through the fall and winter!

Let’s Be Friends!

I know alterations can be quite time consuming and a bit nightmare-ish, but I’m relly happy with how these turned out. Let’s be friends on all the socials! Come follow along on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok so we can chat about all our sewing projects!