increasing the width of an elastic waistband

[acowserParticipant]

dear professor pincushion:

good afternoon and thank you for creating these outstanding videos. 2 questions:

q1i have a pattern – kwik sew – that has a 1 1/4 inch elastic waistband. I want to increase the waistband to 2 inches in height because wider elastic is more comfortable. do you have a video which explains that? if not, how do i do that?

q2: most pant patterns that i have are not high waist patterns, but for comfort for me, I like them. how do i increase the rise on a pant pattern from mid-rise or low-rise to high-rise?

thank you, thank you. angela

[professorpincushionParticipant]

I think you can definitely do this. Usually the top of the waistline for a pattern that has an elastic waistband doesn’t really have much of a hip curve so the side seam may be more or less on the straight side. It’s really the gathering that’s creating the shape of the garment rather than being totally dependent on the pattern shape. If it were me, I’d just increase the waistline up on the pattern, or when you pin the pattern just cut more of the fabric past the waistline. for example if the casing for the waistband is 1 1/4″ but you wanted 2″ then cut 3/4″ past the waistline on your fabric. If you don’t want the waistline to fall at the hips but be a little higher up, like 2″ more than cut 2″ past the waistline when cutting the fabric. At least when it comes to an elastic waistline, it’s pretty forgiving. Hope that helps!

[Author]

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