Slimming Down Baggy Pant Legs: A DIY Guide
Instead of discarding or storing pants with overly wide legs, you can alter them yourself using basic sewing tools and techniques to achieve a more tailored fit.
By Robin Reed7 steps
Take in the pant-leg seams to make skinnier legs.
When pants fit perfectly except for their wide legs, there's no need to banish them to the back of your drawer or give them away. Armed with a sewing machine, chalk, pins, and a measuring tape, even a beginner can slim down those baggy legs in just an hour or two.
Step 1
Using a seam ripper, remove the bottom hem from both pant legs. Work from the inside: slide the ripper's point under a stitch, then push the blade against the stitch to cut it. Continue until the entire seam is undone, and pull out any loose threads.
Step 2
Turn the pants inside out and put them on, fastening them completely. With a helper or on your own, pinch the excess fabric where you want the new seam to be and place straight pins vertically along the outside seam to mark it. While you could pin both the outside and inside seams, it's usually simpler to only adjust the regular outside seam rather than the flat-felled inside seam. Carefully take off the pants without disturbing the pins.
Step 3
Use chalk to draw a straight line connecting the pins, marking where you'll sew. Taper the line so that at the top it gradually meets the original seam. With a flexible measuring tape, measure from the outside seam to the chalk line, and use those measurements to replicate the line on the other leg. Then remove the pins.
Step 4
Thread the sewing machine with matching thread, following its threading diagram, and sew along the chalk lines.
Step 5
Turn the pants right-side out and try them on to check the fit. If you're happy with the new leg shape, move on to the next step. If the legs are still too wide, turn them inside out again, mark a line slightly narrower than the seam you just sewed with chalk, and sew along it. If they're too tight, use the seam ripper to undo the new seam and make it wider.
Step 6
Once the fit is right, turn the pants inside out again and trim the excess fabric from the new seam, leaving at least 1/4 inch next to the stitching. If the fabric frays easily (like cotton), finish the raw edges with a serger or overlock machine. If you don't have one, use a zigzag stitch on your sewing machine along the outer edge of the new seam.
Step 7
Refold and resew the bottom hem of each leg, following the original creases.
