A few years ago l bought two pairs of straight leg black jeans, one pair was Levi Strauss & Co. The other pair were RJR John Rocha. Both made of stretchy material.
At the time, l had a job getting them over my tummy but then realised, it wasn’t my tummy but they weren’t waisted jeans.
I thought about adding a bit at the top and wearing a longish jumper but then l thought that they would look ridiculous!
I looked on YouTube and saw that there are ways of converting them into waisted jeans by undoing the stitching in the ‘crotch’ area… such an unfortunate word… l didn’t even like typing it! Ha!
You then cut out some of the materiel and sew them up again.
It sounds great but l might be a bit nervous to do that in case l ruin them altogether!
I wonder if anyone can suggest an easy way to take them up to the waist. Or is the way shown on YouTube fairly easy?
I can’t wait to see some of the suggestions from the ‘usual suspects’!
My thoughts after watching that video is that the presenter made no mention of the length of the jeans.
The lowering of the crotch seam looks simple enough - but if you are lowering the crotch by 2 inches to raise the waist height, wouldn’t that raise the bottom edge of the Jean legs by 2 inches too?
Wouldn’t you have to make sure you had enough leg length to do that - or you may end up with jeans which are “half-mast” ?
Exactly … and that’s just one of the implications …
Altering your jeans isn’t the same as altering a pair of dress pants, though. It requires a bit more finesse and comes with more precautions for each operation.
Waist
A great- (or decent-)fitting seat is often accompanied by a loose waist. You can find yourself constantly picking up your jeans throughout the day. If both the seat and waist fit too loosely, you’d likely be better off finding smaller pants. While a belt is a simple solution, having the waist taken in is a more elegant route.
It’s possible to have the waist taken in by a tailor, but this is more of a delicate procedure. Because jeans aren’t built with easily-altered seats and waists, there’s more room for error and even less room to let out. A good tailor will take in the waist at the back, directly in the center. This is a tricky operation since both the center seam and the belt loop sit at this point and it requires a surgical hand to undo and restitch them. If done correctly, the center back seam will look the same and the cut that the tailor has made at the waist band will be hidden by the belt loop. Be sure to ask if your tailor can take in the waist from the back and expect to pay around $50 depending on your tailor.
Seat
The seat is the trickiest alteration to have done. If you can avoid this, do so. If you’ve searched high and low for jeans without finding one with a decently-fitting seat, be prepared to do even more searching for the right tailor to do the job.
Oh my dear, life is far too short to fiddle around with that!
And you’ve had them a couple of years? It will probably ruin them anyway
I’d just bung ‘em in a carrier bag and take them to a charity shop that supports my favourite charity and let them get lucky
And treat yourself to a couple of new pairs and wear them to do something fun in the extra leisure time you’ve saved not having to spend hours unpicking your crotch!
There is one thing about me, it’s that l am no quitter and l never, ever give up!
Oh of course, how easy it would be just to give up, throw the towel in… beaten!
Whilst l am able, determined and have got a working brain… l will sort those jeans out!
The legs are the right width and the jeans are of good quality, so why would l sell them for pence to an ebayer who says they haven’t arrived or, they weren’t up to standard and ask for a refund?
Why would l bin perfectly good jeans when their only fault is, l would prefer the waist to be higher.
You see in my house… World War 2 hasn’t finished and l am still living on rations!!
