Jeans waistband tutorial
5 Sep 2012 07:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
motorharpI love this method of attaching waistbands! I adapted it from David Page Coffin's technique for attaching cuffs on dress shirts from his DVD Shirtmaking Techniques1. This works consistently well for waistbands in general. I especially like using this on jeans as it really cuts down on bulk in the corners and makes it easier for me to topstitch.
1. Sew one long edge of the waistband to the pants, stopping exactly at the edge of the side seam of the pants.
2. With the wrong side of the pants facing you (on top) and the waistband on the bottom, fold the side seam at approximately a 45° angle so it lays along the stitching line of the waistband and pin. Do not cover the stitching.
3. Fold the waistband in half, long edges together, so the side edges and corner align. You'll have all the jeans that you just folded and pinned out of the way uncomfortably sandwiched in the waistband.
4. The ending thread is a guide for where to pivot your stitching for the corner. Sew from the folded waistband edge down to the corner where your thread ended, pivot, and continue sewing for about 1". It will look like you are sewing in the wrong place. It's okay!
5. Trim corners and grade seams.
6. Turn the waistband right side out. This will take some finger strength. Pull the corner out so it's square. Do this in whatever way works best for you so you don't poke your point turner through the corner. :)
7. Topstitch and edgestitch at will.
Of course, after I finished this (dare I say it?) perfect waistband, while sewing the buttonhole for the THIRD TIME, my machine sucked such a huge ball of topstitching thread into the bobbin (I'm talking at least 1/2" (1.27cm) in diameter) that I actually had to put my foot on my machine and pull with both hands to get my jeans out. I also broke my seam ripper in the course of wrestling with this. They finally (and suddenly) gave a few extra fractions of an inch, but that was because the denim RIPPED. And this wasn't a cute little tear I could mend with a jaunty zig zag, this was the whole edge up to the buttonhole. And the replacement waistband? Didn't come anywhere near this perfection.
I will think about it as my sand mandala. Ohmmmm...
1 I can't recommend David's DVD highly enough, and especially recommend it along with his book Shirtmaking: Developing Skills for Fine Sewing if you want to improve your technical sewing skills by an order of magnitude.
1. Sew one long edge of the waistband to the pants, stopping exactly at the edge of the side seam of the pants.
2. With the wrong side of the pants facing you (on top) and the waistband on the bottom, fold the side seam at approximately a 45° angle so it lays along the stitching line of the waistband and pin. Do not cover the stitching.
3. Fold the waistband in half, long edges together, so the side edges and corner align. You'll have all the jeans that you just folded and pinned out of the way uncomfortably sandwiched in the waistband.
4. The ending thread is a guide for where to pivot your stitching for the corner. Sew from the folded waistband edge down to the corner where your thread ended, pivot, and continue sewing for about 1". It will look like you are sewing in the wrong place. It's okay!
5. Trim corners and grade seams.
6. Turn the waistband right side out. This will take some finger strength. Pull the corner out so it's square. Do this in whatever way works best for you so you don't poke your point turner through the corner. :)
7. Topstitch and edgestitch at will.
Of course, after I finished this (dare I say it?) perfect waistband, while sewing the buttonhole for the THIRD TIME, my machine sucked such a huge ball of topstitching thread into the bobbin (I'm talking at least 1/2" (1.27cm) in diameter) that I actually had to put my foot on my machine and pull with both hands to get my jeans out. I also broke my seam ripper in the course of wrestling with this. They finally (and suddenly) gave a few extra fractions of an inch, but that was because the denim RIPPED. And this wasn't a cute little tear I could mend with a jaunty zig zag, this was the whole edge up to the buttonhole. And the replacement waistband? Didn't come anywhere near this perfection.
I will think about it as my sand mandala. Ohmmmm...
1 I can't recommend David's DVD highly enough, and especially recommend it along with his book Shirtmaking: Developing Skills for Fine Sewing if you want to improve your technical sewing skills by an order of magnitude.
