Take in skirts with a waistband (properly!)👗 DIY downsize sewing alteration tutorial, Big to small!
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- Опубліковано 30 чер 2024
- In this video I’ll show you step by step how to take in a skirt with a waistband so that it fits you perfectly. Use this same technique with pants that have a waistband or even dresses that you wish to make smaller. I'll teach you the proper technique of adding tucks to decrease the waist size instead of sewing hacks that add weird bulky seams or that fall apart in the long run!
Welcome to Slew Living. I'm Esther and I sew stuff to support a slow lifestyle.
If you’re starting to learn about sustainable and ethical fashion and how to curate a more mindful closet, a great step is to learn how to alter clothing and accessories, and make them last longer. This way you can really invest in the key pieces of your wardrobe that you get the most wear out of - tailoring them to suit your shape and style, and in the long run saving the planet from excess clothing that ends up in landfill.
You might be surprised to learn that most carbon emissions from the fashion supply chain are from the end user (us!), that come from caring for the garment - things like washing, drying and disposing of it at the end of it’s life. Prolonging the life of a garment therefore decreases the emissions required to create new garments, and also the disposal of it to landfill. In the words of Vivienne Westwood, ‘Buy less, choose well and make it last!’
Follow along for more inspo and BTS / slewliving
Let me know in the comments if you have suggestions for more mending tutorials or garments you’d like to sew from scratch! - Навчання та стиль
Thank you for adding little details like pressing the seams- and for making it look so doable even for someone without any sewing skill (like me). I've been putting off taking in several skirts because I'm intimidated, but you make it look easy!
You can do it! 💪
You made this look so easy... now to go do my own skirt!!!!
This was by far the best way to sew in a waste it took me two hours but absolutely love how it came out !!!
Excellent! So happy it turned out great!
thanks for this, followed these instructions to take in my skirt and it’s come out great! my skirt was a bit different but this was thorough enough that i could work out what to do anyway
Oh I'm glad it still turned out, well done! 👏
Beautiful work!
Great job! Thanks for sharing!
Recently finished altering a pair of jean shorts (albeit messily because it's my first alternation project), and tackling my skirt next 😂 Wish me luck! Thank you for informing about the darts and tucks, I'm a beginner and this video seems very clear.
Good luck with the skirt! Thanks for the lovely comment 🙂
Good luck with your sewing Mendlerring
The only video I found that goes in more depth on what happens with the waistband and how to fix it 🙏🏽 #thankingyou 🤍
Thanks to you I altered a skirt for the first time 🌟
Amazing! Well done 😀
Thank you! So helpful
Thank you! This was incredibly helpful
You're welcome 🥰
Thank you for a nice explanation!
Thank you for your detailed description. I bought a skirt long ago and wanted to alter it. You encouraged me to do it. It fits perfectly now! Thank you ❤
Great job!!! Glad it turned out well!
Thanks a lot ! at last a proper way to reduce a skirt waistband 🥰 I am going to try it !
Best of luck!
So helpful,thanks
Very helpful
Thank you! I just bought my dream skirt but it’s far too big! When looking at returning they don’t have my size in stock anymore. This is going to help me get it to fit perfectly!
Perfect! Good luck!
Awesome
Trying this out on a pleated skirt. Hoping this works! 😅
Wow this is such a wonderfully informative video! Thank you for making this. One question - you noted the darts and tucks on the skirt before altering it, and then after removing the waistband, you tucked over more fabric. Did you unpick the darts/tucks already present, or just swallow them up with the new tucks? Thanks!
Thank you! I unpicked the original tucks and then added the extra fabric to them, so they became slightly bigger tucks. You can also create new tucks if you prefer the look 😊👌
Hello, this video is very nice and detailed, but i have a school skirt with a zipper in the side, I need to take out 1.5 inches i was wonder if i could just do it from the seam opposite to the zipper, like just sew a stright line up and down to make it fit better?
Hi there, taking it from just one side will effect the overall fit of the skirt so I don't recommend it BUT if you don't have any other options you might get away with it... Are there pleats in your school skirt? If so it will make them uneven and might be not nice to look at so take that into consideration :)
Thank you for the tutorial -- this was super helpful!!
Do you have any potential tips for a very drastic waistband reduction? I'm a size small, and found an XL skirt at a thrift store that was the exact color/material/style I wanted for a project I was working on. The darts and tucks seem like they'll get pretty drastic, so I was wondering if you hand any ideas for a resizing of that scale?
Yay! Glad it was helpful. Yes if you're taking away lots of fabric I would then take from the side seams. If there's a zipper on one side then you can potentially take from the other side and just be careful to balance the skirt out again? It will depend on the design of the skirt too 😊
👍❤️
Thanks for this video! What machine do you use? Do you think it's better to buy an older machine and tune it up, or buy newer?
You're welcome! I don't know what model my domestic machine is - it's just a very old Brother. I would purchase a new machine rather than tuning an old one. Unless you are inheriting the machine from someone who can tell you if it's in proper working order to save a lot of hassle later on 😊
Time Estimate!
Hello! I tried this project on a more complicated skirt. It has much more flow-y fabric, and was very long. The waistband was set up to where I had to work with buttons, button-holes, and even elastics and fabric gathering by hand. Because of the many differences between the skirt I altered and this video, I also spent a good amount of time planning how to improv the different parts. This was also a skirt for someone else (NOT me) so I spent a lot of extra time doing countless extra measurements. Because of the delicacy of the fabric I was using, I had to do some extra de-stitching and on parts I had to sew backwards by hand. I also have a very poor quality sewing machine, and had to take time to fiddle with it frequently. Also worth noting that I have been sewing for a little while now and have a limited knowledge on the technicalities.
Considering all these factors, the entire project, start to finish, took me between
**3.5 and 6 hours**
(this is a FANTASTIC tutorial! I loved it! I just add this comment to give an estimate as to how long this project may take, especially for those less experienced in sewing!)
Wow it sounds like your skirt was definitely more complex and would take a fair amount of time to alter! Yes, I do recognise that this alteration could take several hours or more, depending on skill level but the end result would be worth it 🤗 Thanks for your lovely comment ❤
That honestly seems pretty fast considering how complicated it was. I’m estimating it will take me about 2 hours to do my regular skirt.
this is so helpful thank you so much!!
the skirt i want to alter is a bit more flowy fabric and to be honest im kind of scared of using the sewing machine on it since its got a track record of eating my thinner fabric and making me want to cry 😭
i know how to use tissue paper to try & stabilise it but otherwise i dont know the proper needle size or thread to use on flowier thinnish fabrics :( and i cant really afford to get a walking foot or a smaller plate or any of that stuff.
is there any knowledge in that beautiful brain of urs that can save me from my own stupidity???? 😥🙏💕
Flowy fabric can be difficult to work with so don't be so hard on yourself! I would recommend a small needle size - perhaps a size 10? And make sure it's new so that it's nice and sharp. Use a good quality thread too, usually a polyester sew all thread should be fine. Use lots of pins to hold things in place before you sew them since flow fabric is normally slippery! Just go nice and slow when you're sewing too, you can't rush with thin delicate fabrics. Hope this is helpful!
Do you have any advice for taking in a skirt with a half elastic waistband?
I would recommend taking from the side seams if the elastic doesn't go all the way to them, otherwise you can try to avoid the elastic and take from the non-elasticated parts
I liked that video but I have a skort that I need to take in around 2 inches from the waist and sides. I see the back darts so I'm thinking I need to take it all apart . I don't know how to attach the picture of my skort
Yes, you might need to detach the skirt piece from the short piece as well in order to take in the back darts from each seperately! Sounds like you have the right idea!
what if we wanna sew and tuck in the skirt without unpicking? i mean im ok with having the flaps remaining tucked in
Can do! The finish won't be as professional but it should still work 👍
Can i do this on a tennis skirt like with lots of pleats
Ooh that could be a bit tricky... if you treat the pleats as regular fabric you could achieve this but it might be bit fiddly!
So if there’s no darts/tucks could you just take the measurement from each side?
Yep!
Hi how to downsize 4-5 inches if we have attached belt in front and elastic band at back?
Hello, I recommend taking 2.5 inches from the front (either by making darts or tucks) and then take another 2.5 inches from the elastic in the back. Good luck!
So my skirt also needs ~4in taken in, but I only have (2) back darts, with a zipper on one side seam. Should I (A): take 2” each from the back darts; (B): Take 1.33” from the darts + the zipperless seam; (C): Add two 1” tucks/darts in the front panel and take 1” from each of the back darts?
Help 🥲
Yeah that's a pain! I think C is the best option. That way you will distribute evenly throughout the whole skirt, but it will require a touch more effort than option A. Option A could also work but it will mean the back is significantly smaller than the front and could look funny... So I definitely think go with C. Good luck!
How about altering a size 3X lining pant to an XLl size
You should be able to use the same technique 🙂
How come you didnt sew the darts all the way down? Did you just sew it horizontally?
I decided to sew tucks instead of darts so yes, I only sewed horizontally to take out the extra fabric.
what about plated skirts?
Pleated skirts are a bit tricky depending on how big or small the pleats are. You can treat the pleated part like it's not pleated if that makes sense and do the alteration the same way!
no comments?
I just realised I had a whole folder full of pending comments!!! 😬😂
@@SlewLiving lmaoo
Thought she said she makes clothes that supports a SLOW lifestyle 😂 I’m thinking sloths are in noq
She did say that, as in the opposite of fast fashion :)