So I got a great deal on these Rebecca Minkoff silk drawstring pants on eBay, but I almost sent them back as soon as I tried them on. They had this awful thing going on at the hips. I mean they had what seemed like giant flaps of unneeded fabric whose only purpose seemed to be to give the illusion of really big hips.
Then I tried them on again and found that I liked the pants if the top part was covered with a tunic. And then I thought about it some more and decided it wouldn’t be too hard to alter them. I figured I’d show you what I did in case you find it useful.
First thing was to try them on again and figure out exactly where they were annoying me and by how much. I pinched that fabric up, and estimated I was pinching about 3/4″ about 2 inches down from the waistband.
Then I took them off and turned them inside out. I used a safety pin to first mark the portion that needed to be taken in the most, and then a few more pins to blend from the existing seam at the leg and back into the waistband:
I repeated on the other side.
I tried them back on with the safety pins in, to confirm that everything fit ok. Then I got out my trusty sewing machine and sewed it, blending the seam in at the beginning and end (actually, I was more concerned with blending at the leg line – since the waist band is gathered, it hides a multitude of sins.)
And here’s a before and after (before on the right, after on the left — is that backwards?) The photo doesn’t really tell the story of how bad they were at first. Now I’m much happier with them!
